One of the truly great film noir classics. "The Big Combo" was released in 1955 as noir was fading and straight-up police dramas were slowly replacing it, yet is an oft-referenced example of quintessential example of the style. This dark film is an unrelenting and tormented catalogue of savage violence, grotesquely black irony and dangerously obsessed sexuality. Police detective Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) has two dangerous obsessions: he's on a reckless hell-bent crusade to bring down smooth and sadistic gangster Mr. Brown (Richard Conte) and wracked by insatiable desire for good-girl-gone-wrong Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), Brown's captive lover. In mortal terror Susan is helpless to escape from the lust-filled nightmare of her life. Meanwhile Brown's lieutenant-in-crime, McClure (Brian Donlevy), plots with cruel hoods Fante (Lee Van Cleef) and Mingo (Earl Holliman) to overthrow their boss. In Brown's unforgiving world however defection and disloyalty are punishable by cruel and unusual death. Photographed by legendary master of sinister shadows John Alton ("I the Jury," "He Walked By Night," and "The Lady and the Monster"), "The Big Combo" was shocking for its time and hard-boiled Hollywood noir and was to blatantly influence Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs."
