The Big Combo has a big reputation. A regular on the “best film noir” lists, it can’t quite match its rep and is more a solid crime thriller that’s been polished to a stygian gleam by excellent technicians, well chosen actors and some careful snaffles from other sources.
The most obvious lift is from 1944’s Laura and its strange plot device of a cop falling in love with the image of a woman rather than the woman herself. That’s also what happens in The Big Combo, when upright and driven Lieutenant Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) becomes infatuated with a mobster’s gal, Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), even though he’s never met her.
Susan is a girl from the right side of the tracks who has gone astray and swapped high society and the concert piano for stud poker and a relationship with Mr Brown (Richard Conte), gang boss, tough nut and advocate of the treat-em-mean method of holding on to women. Wherever Susan goes, Brown’s two henchmen, Fante (Lee Van Cleef) and Mingo (Earl Holliman) go too. In fact that’s who we meet first in the film’s strikingly shot opening scene – imagery lifted from Edward Hopper – as Susan, backstage at a boxing fight, tries to get away from Fante and Mingo, who are having none of it.
And that’s about it – cop Diamond tries to bring down boss of “the big combination” Brown, through Susan, never quite certain in his own mind whether he’s after justice or the girl, while Brown evades escape, and Fante and Mingo hover in the middle. Adding interesting extra plot curlicues are Brian Donlevy as Brown’s second in command, McClure – who used to be top dog but lost his place in the pecking order – and Helene Stanton as Rita, a showgirl Diamond turns to when he wants some late-night action.
There are unusual scenes. Like the one where Brown borrows McClure’s hearing aid and tortures Diamond by strapping it to his ears and playing loud music into it. And there are unusual relationships. The one between Fante and Mingo appears to go beyond co-worker level into the intimate. At one point Mingo says to Fante – “I can’t swallow any more salami.” Perhaps a sly joke by screenplay writer Philip Yordan? Do with it what you will.
For the most part, though, the concern is with dominant males – women can’t help but fall for them, and a man who (like McClure) yields to another dominant male (Brown) loses all self worth. For Diamond, winning the case and winning the girl become the same thing – if he bests Brown, Susan will flip, simple as.
It’s a bleak view of humanity, and Richard Conte is the man to give it voice. With his steely eyes, and cold, still presence, he’s the real star of the film, rather than the slightly understated Wilde. It’s big of Wilde to yield so much to Conte – he co-owned one of the production companies that made the film, with his wife and co-star Wallace (who also suggested shortening the film’s original title, The Big Combination)
Director Joseph H Lewis was known for his ability to turn base metal into gold when it came to B movies and shot this film at pace. For the most part it looks like high-end TV. But here and there Lewis’s DP, John Alton, drops in exquisitely, almost absurdly lyrical demonstrations of his abilities. That opening scene and the famous closing one, with silhouettes in the fog, are a large part of the reason why the film has its vaunted reputation. The jazzy score by David Raksin helps too. He’d also scored Daisy Kenyon, Force of Evil and Whirlpool, so he knew one end of a noir from the other.
A classic? Not quite, I’d say. Full of great stuff, fine actors, arresting moments, but beneath it all it’s a fairly simple whodunit. Nothing wrong with that.
The Big Combo – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2023
