There are images in The Big Combo (1955) that are everything you want from a classic Film Noir. Opening with a woman stepping down a darkly lit corridor, backstage to a boxing match, pursued by suited figures. Later, a man in a suit wearing a hat emerges from the fog outside, stepping into a hangar to catch up with his nemesis. Or a room filled with darkness and faces like a young Lee Van Cleef, lit from below, dramatically emphasising a world of suspicion. Every frame of painting or in this case, every frame a perfect still for an academic book on Film Noir.
What’s great about The Big Combo is an economic narrative, beginning in the middle, catching us to speed with the obsessive quest of detective Leonard Diamond (Cornell Wilde) to slam the cuffs on elusive gangster Mr Brown (Richard Conte). Diamond’s case hinges on the depressed girlfriend of Mr. Brown, Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace) who the cop is also romantically stuck on, even though he has a casual thing going with a showgirl, Rita (Helene Stanton). Meanwhile, Mr. Brown’s right hand man in the organisation, Joe (Brian Donlevy) sports a hearing aid and has an agenda of his own. There’s enough intrigue and dimensions to the struggle between law and order, and John Alton’s black and white cinematography emphasises the dark underworld of secrets and lies.
Richard Conte is great as the mob boss showing off a slick and smarmy style. There is a straight line from him to Ben Gazzara to Robert De Niro to Joe Pesci to all these fast walking sociopathic “gentlemen.“ Cornell Wilde I was not familiar with but there’s a kind of bruiser quality to his portrayal of a detective figure . There’s a little bit of grey to what could be just a straight jaw do-gooder, particularly his unrequited love for the gangster’s moll. Imaginative bits of business like a running thread with Joe’s hearing aid that has a sensational payoff, a highpoint of noir artistry.
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis who also made the excellent Gun Crazy, The Big Combo is a great example of classic film noir style with a charged and sharp narrative engine. I was happy to have pressed play upon this title within the Tubi library.
VHS Tracking 