The Big Combo (1955)

best movie i've ever seen.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

We expect much from director Joseph H. Lewis, writer Philip Yordan and photographer John Alton, and this trio of talented movie-makers certainly doesn't disappoint their fans with their moody, highly atmospheric The Big Combo. The actors are first-class too. For once in a film noir, the women have major and important roles as well as the men. Jean Wallace is especially effective as the frightened heroine who disguises her fear by adopting a semblance of bravado, while Helen Walker plays most effectively as the long awaited Alicia. Cornel Wilde has one of his best roles as the persuasive hero, while Richard Conte does the incredibly evil bad guy proud. Even the smaller roles are brilliantly characterized and played. You really have to see the movie twice to fully appreciate all the startling effects and characterizations it has to offer. Available on a really excellent Geneon DVD which has no censor cuts – unlike the movie I saw in the cinema way back on February 28, 1957, when it ran two weeks at the local Palace.

This 1955, b&w, crime-drama had both its good points, as well as its not-so-good points.Its best point, by far, was its overall look which consisted of many scenes shot in shadowy, partially-lit spaces. This welcome effect often gave the story a more menacing feel to it, beyond what was generally conveyed by the actions of the characters.As well as The Big Combo having its fair share of impressive camera-work to its credit, it also contained plenty of unintentional humour in a story that clearly took itself way too seriously for its own good.But, on the other hand - What almost ruined this picture for me was the hideously annoying performance of actress Jean Wallace who played the clueless, blond, gangster's moll, Susan Lowell. Believe me, this woman's portrayal really grated on my nerves, big-time.Anyway - For the most part, The Big Combo was OK entertainment as far as 1950's crime-dramas go.

A detective obsessed with catching a criminal, to the point where the two mirror each other . . . not Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) but a film of 40 years earlier, The Big Combo (Joseph H Lewis, 1955). What an array of talent! Not just director Lewis, but screenwriter Philip Yordan, composer David Raksin, and director of photography, John Alton. Low budget, high art. Ars longa, vita brevis.Consider the opening 10 shots, following the credits: 1. Night, cops directing crowds across a road. 2. Dissolve to LS of boxing match. 3. Back of the stadium, lit with light and shadow, very high walls: a woman comes towards us running, chased by two men. 4. Shaft of light: the woman enters it running, then exits. 5. Repeat of shot 3, the set a little altered: the woman chased again, as if in a labyrinth. 6. Swing doors in dark and light: the woman runs through them. 7. LS of woman other side of the doors, two men still chasing. Our eye is drawn to a coffee counter at the right with a single customer. 8. The two men catch and hold the woman, then let her go. 9. Frontal MS of woman walking into the light, slight pullback of camera while a muted trumpet plays the main musical motif softly; the two men enter the frame, and one leaves. 10. MS of woman with hoodlum (Lee Van Cleef, for it is he is) in full light throwing shadows on wall, followed by camera doing a swift pan right to the coffee counter from shot 7, where it holds the shot, then as the customer finishes his coffee he walks diagonally into CU. 11. Dissolve to . . . etc.The first thing to applaud is the way the film states that the woman is running from the boxing match: she's not shown at the ring, just at the back of the stadium, in flight. The juxtaposition of the ring and of the woman running is all that is needed for us to connect the two, while at the same time conveying the notion that she is running from everything, not just a boxing match. Top economy of narrative.The second reason is John Alton's direct quote of Edward Hopper, the painter of human solitude, who liked to frame his individuals in the window so that we see them through a glass screen, rather like a film director in fact. Nor is this redundant pictorialism since the pan to the coffee counter and the man then moving forward links the two elements of the story: we've seen the hoodlums; now the film introduces a detective.The third reason is the immediate sense of claustrophobia that the sequence generates, a case of 'Start as you mean to go on': the protagonists move in spaces determined by the lighting and the shadows and silhouettes they create. A triumph of black-and-white chiaroscuro.A triumph too for classical Hollywood as opposed to the mannerist Hollywood of Heat. That was made with a massive budget, bigger stars, bigger set pieces when with The Big Combo Joseph H Lewis (and the producer Sydney Harmon) show how it can be done so much more simply without losing quality. What is more the psychology of the cop-criminal relationship in Lewis's film is far less glamorous, more gritty and more cruel than in Heat. Heat managers to give a sheen to its posturing, show-off psychopaths; in its underplayed but disturbing torture scenes, The Big Combo paints a darker interior picture to match Alton's exteriors, oppressive in their combination of darkness and blinding light.171 minutes of Heat? Well, probably. 84 minutes of The Big Combo? Yes, definitely.www.timcawkwell.co.uk

I thought that 'The Big Combo' was just an okay film, I had a hard time staying focused (it really didn't grab or keep my attention), you didn't really grow to like an of the characters, especially the main character Lt. Diamond, which in my opinion was the most important character to like. It was a little hard to follow in the beginning, I couldn't tell if they were doing a flash back or if they were just doing a "meanwhile on the other side of town" kind of intro. I understand that in 'film noir' it's supposed to be really dark and shadowy, but this was really hard to see and focus on sometimes (however, the quality could have just been affected by the network in which I watched it from). I thought the story was a good idea, I just felt that it could have been so much better.