How ‘Mank’ Shot Day for Night, and in Hi-Dynamic Range Black-and-White, Amazon Prime Video schedule: Here’s what is coming in April 2020, Amazon Prime Video New Releases: April 2020. He shows her a photo of Brown, Alicia and Grazzi together on the boat. Many of the actors we have already covered so I will jump right in with them. 1955. The Big Combo (1955) - Film Noir with Richard Conte part 2/2. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. comment. The Big Combo This is another saga of the honest cop who lets nothing sway him from the self-appointed task of smashing a crime syndicate and its leader. Stars Lee Van Cleefe of Sergio Leone's Western trilogy . Brown orders a hit on Diamond. There's a streak of sadism in the casting, too: Both Wallace's attempted suicide and Walker's dissipation bring to mind the actresses' private troubles. The Big Combo is a 1955 film noir that follows a tormented police lieutenant, who is on a personal crusade to bring down a sadistic gangster. Read The Big Combo reviews from the folks at Rotten Tomatoes; Rate the Film! [10], Reviews of the movie today are mostly positive. Directed by Joseph H. Lewis. The last scene shows the silhouetted figures of Diamond and Susan in the fog, considered to be one of the iconic images of film noir. He's also dangerously obsessed with Brown's girlfriend, his captive lover. The Big Combo is a rewarding thriller with a good handle on the hardboiled crime saga circa 1955. USA. [7] Wilde changed the title to "The Big Combination" and Jean Wallace suggested it be shortened to "The Big Combo". As I said the script is only so-so. Brown also takes a big stash of "money" to Fante and Mingo while they are hiding out from the police, but the box turns out to contain a bomb that apparently kills both of them. Meanwhile, Brown's right-hand man, McClure, wants to take over. Yordan won an Oscar for the story of Broken Lance, and his name appears on such films as El Cid, King of Kings, Joe Macbeth, The Naked Jungle, and 55 Days at Peking. Instead, he’s dragged unwillingly away into the darkness. [citation needed], 1955 American film noir crime film by Joseph H. Lewis, List of films in the public domain in the United States, index of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Big_Combo&oldid=1000700341, Films about organized crime in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 January 2021, at 07:59. Ninety-six-fifty-a-week cop Wilde lives in a cheap flat across from a burlesque house, one of whose headliners (Helene Stanton) he occasionally `sees.' Chris Dashiell on the website CineScene finds the dialogue "run of the mill" but praises the film's director, writing that "Lewis had a remarkable ability to infuse poetry into the most banal material, and The Big Combo is one of his best efforts... it's not as startlingly inventive as Lewis's best film, Gun Crazy (1949), but it's a quality B-film, satisfying and dark. Innovative and striking, The Big Combo comes as close as any film in the noir cycle to being an art-house triumph; it consolidates Lewis' reputation as an erratic director who was nonetheless capable here, and with his Gun Crazy of pulling off something unexpected yet extraordinary. Looking for more? AllisonTamoshunas5585. Was this review helpful to you? An armored truck driver and his ex-wife conspire with a gang to have his own truck robbed on the route. Introduction by Caren Feldman. and woodwinds (saxophones, etc.) Diamond eventually learns through one of Brown's past accomplices that Alicia was actually Brown's wife. Police Lt. Leonard Diamond is on a personal crusade to bring down the sadistic gangster Mr. Brown. Kids can jump, play, climb, slide and shoot hoops inside of this beautiful unicorn themed combo bouncer. Most film noir movies feature scores that are orchestral (strings). The Big Combo is considered her best film and along with you, I look forward to seeing it. Find trailers, reviews, synopsis, awards and cast information for The Big Combo (1955) - Joseph H. Lewis on AllMovie - Police Lt. Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) is… But his only passion is for nailing suave but savage crime boss Richard Conte. His main objective as a detective is to uncover what happened to a woman called "Alicia" from the crime boss's past. The Big Combo is a great noir crime drama and one of the best "B movies" I've seen. Brown shoots Diamond's partner, Sam, and kidnaps Susan, planning to fly away to safety. CINE KULTURE. One torture scene in particular will shock the sensibilities and cause near-nausea." Among the young filmmakers who frequented Club 57, Steve Brown was also an active programmer with a particular interest in the work of macho auteurs like Sam Fuller and Nicholas Ray and noir directors such as Lewis. Frank Bigelow, told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why. Diamond sees an up-to-date photo of Alicia but realizes it wasn't taken in Sicily (since there's snow on the ground). Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? plus-circle Add Review. Low-key photography by John Alton, one of his best,[12] and a jazz-derived score by David Raksin with solo piano by Jacob Gimpel are in keeping with the film's tough mood. Conte was one of cinema's best yet underrated tough guys, and in "The Big Combo" he really shines. [6], Eventually the film was a co production between Theodora, the production company of Cornel Wilde and Jean Wallace, and Security, a company of Phil Yordan and Sidney Harmon. A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit". plus-circle Add Review. Wilde also harbors half-admitted fantasies of riding to the rescue of Conte's remote and unwilling mistress (Jean Wallace, Wilde's off-screen wife). This crime gem features an amazing performance of unbridled sadism by the great Richard Conte as syndicate head Mr. Brown. Reviews Reviewer: Kentworth - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 8, 2014 Subject: Mr. Brown, Mr. Big . An ex-con trying to go straight is framed for a million dollar armored car robbery and must go to Mexico in order to unmask the real culprits. A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. A police lt. is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown, because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him. Mr. Brown, his second-in-command McClure and thugs Fante and Mingo kidnap and torture the lieutenant, then pour a bottle of alcohol-based hair tonic down his throat before letting him go. The Big Combo was shot by John Alton and took the shadowy noir style to its outer limits. However, Brown's plane does not show up and the film climaxes in a foggy hangar shootout. In one particular scene, crime boss Mr. Brown utilizes a jazz record and a hearing aid, among … 55:28. comment. Reviews Reviewer: Timothy Edison - favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 11, 2020 Subject: Lee Van Cleefe . The story doesn't have any of the he-she psychosexual politicking that juices the director's Gun Crazy, but that's no loss given this film's richer returns. Iin a performance brimming with cool menace, Conte is fond of saying `First is first and second is nobody.' Joseph H. Lewis’ The Big Combo is an exciting, hard-boiled urban noir that loves lurking in the shadows. This idea of aesthetic torture is taken to the extreme in Joseph H. Lewis’ film noir classic The Big Combo (1955). It’s rather telling that it begins and ends with silhouettes, figures basking in the dark which underlies a perpetual state of bleakness. He is also dangerously obsessed with Brown's girlfriend, the suicidal Susan Lowell. Diamond makes one last attempt to uncover evidence against Brown by going to Brown's girlfriend, Susan Lowell. Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree. He plots with Fante and Mingo to ambush Mr. Brown, but they betray and murder him. Add the first question. The Big Combo is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Joseph H. Lewis and photographed by cinematographer John Alton, with music by David Raksin.[3]. Chance events trap hitchhiking nightclub pianist Al Roberts in a tightening net of death, deception and blackmail. Police Lt. Diamond is told to close his surveillance of suspected mob boss Mr. Brown because it's costing the department too much money with no results. With Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy. The Big Combo is scary, and disturbing, because it never entirely gives over to the kind of outright hysteria that might serve as a catharsis, and so the feelings of cloaked desperation are never expunged. The Big Combo wisely implies most of its violence. View production, box office, & company info. 94 of 105 people found this review helpful. It's especially instructive as an example of a movie with a visual surface that completely hides its low budget origin. The Big Combo The Big Combo has some solid scenes including a torture scene involving a hearing aid and a classic noir ending with searchlights and silhouettes. The disc has The Big Combo original screenplay as a PDF file and the package offers reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Scott Saslow for all films and a hardback book featuring new writing on all the films by noir experts and critics including Michael Brooke, Andrew Spicer, David Cairns and Tony Rayns and others. A war veteran turned truck driver attempts to avenge the crippling and robbing of his father at the hands of an amoral produce scofflaw. The Big Combo counts as one of the more sadistic instalments in the cycle, but the mayhem and executions are played as big set-pieces, as flourishes; Lewis draws on Alton's full fetch of tricks (and in one memorable instance, on the sound editor's) to highlight but … The_Big_Combo_1955 Run time 1:27:28 Sound sound Year 1955 . Kling Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA. This leads Diamond to suspect Brown did not kill Alicia but his boss Grazzi instead. THE BIG COMBO, by the way, is the Bolemac Corporation, run by Brown and the unseen Grazzi. DeborahMcclearn2238. 45:03. Joseph Lewis directed the film starring Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, and … 26:07. Directed by Joseph H. Lewis.Written by Philip Yordan. [15], The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 92% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 13 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.04/10.[16]. This FAQ is empty. Few films so convincingly seem to be Somewhere … Through a fluke circumstance, a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and is determined to hold onto it even if it means murder. The Big Combo debuts on Blu-ray from Olive Films in a 1.78.1 widescreen transfer presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. Brown is eventually caught, sure, but not, tellingly, in a fiery hail of bullets. Diamond is able to track Alicia to a sanitarium, where she is staying under another name. Police Lt. Diamond is told to close his surveillance of suspected mob boss Mr. Brown because it's costing the department too much money with no results. This film-noir piece, told in semi-documentary style, follows police on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop. The film was initially called The Hoodlum based on a story by Philip Yordan. With a title that makes it sound like an episode of Dragnet, The Big Combo may on initial inspection seem a run-of-the-mill gangster picture. However, there is something to be said about director Joseph H. Lewis’ notable efforts in bringing vibrant life to such a tiny picture. Check out our all NEW Unicorn Combo Bounce House….! The introductory scenes of The Big Combo may remind you of Quentin Tarantino and Pulp Fiction — two of the film's supporting characters, Fante and Mingo (played by Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman) are the hoods whose job it is to carry out the orders of kingpin Mr Brown, while an even lesser character is the boxer who Mr Brown drops from the payroll. The accomplice suspects that Alicia was sent away to Sicily with former mob boss Grazzi, then murdered, tied to the boat's anchor and permanently submerged. Check out some of our favorite child stars from movies and television. Variety wrote that "It is done with grim melodramatics that are hard-hitting despite a rambling, not-too-credible plot, and is cut out to order for the meller fan who likes his action rough and raw. Past DVD releases have been fullframe but this widescreen framing looks good and while things are understandably tightened up at … A small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter. We covered Adler in Episode 38 – … Coming late in the noir cycle and directed by Joseph Lewis, it seized a position as one of its most innovative and stylish titles. Title: Another source says he was unhappy his wife was not cast in the second female lead. score. An unethical lawyer, with an older brother he wants to help, becomes a partner with a client in the numbers racket. The film stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte and Brian Donlevy, as well as Jean Wallace, who was Wilde's wife at the time. The Big Combo isn’t as wild or daring as either film—though Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman do play toughs in a thinly coded gay relationship—but it’s an unrelentingly tough film, and toughly played by all involved. At one point, Brown advises one of his heavies to shoot himself in the head if … The husband stays in hiding, and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy. Dreyer denies involvement and does not want to disclose anything to Diamond, but is nonetheless murdered by McClure shortly after leaving his shop later that day. The Big Combo (1955) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Conte's so possessive that he assigns an intimate twosome of torpedoes (Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman) as her full-time bodyguards (since they're gay, he trusts them to serve as eunuchs). The Big Combo may be the only film noir ever plugged on the I Love Lucy show (Cornel Wilde guest-starred in the episode which aired April 18, 1955). Palance dropped out of the film, claiming he wanted a week off after finishing The Silver Chalice (1954). It also included the final screen appearance of actress Helen Walker allowing Diamond to arrest him lets wife. 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