Joseph H. Lewis' masterpiece, The Big Combo, stands alongside Billy Wilder's
Double Indemnity, Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour and Fritz Lang's The Big Heat as one
of the truly great film noir classics. 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; The Lady and the Monster), The Big Combo is shocking
and hard-boiled Hollywood noir, and not for the faint of heart.
Starring: Brian Donlevy & Lee Van Cleef
Directed by: Joseph H. Lewis
The Big Combo (DVD Movie) . . .
