Remastered version
One of the greatest film noirs of all time, wonderfully written by Philip Yordan (Panic in the Streets), beautifully shot by John Alton (He Walked by Night) and stylishly directed by Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy) with a rousing score by David Raksin (Suddenly). Raw and violent, steeped in the film noir tradition; this cult classic ventures into the seamy gangster underworld, oozing with seediness and low-life characters. Far ahead of its time, The Big Combo takes a dark, disturbing look at the battle between Police Lieutenant Diamond (Cornel Wilde), a good and honest cop, Mr. Brown (Richard Conte), a sadistic crime boss and Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), a cool and beautiful blonde who gets caught in the middle. With the help of the gangster’s ex-girlfriend, Diamond is determined to bring down the cunning gangland kingpin. But the gangster and his henchmen are ruthless. They savagely pummel Diamond and conduct gut-wrenchingly brutal acts of torture that were unusual on screen at the time of the film’s release 1955. With its unflinching direction by Lewis, The Big Combo was a worthy predecessor of later explicitly violent films that honestly explored unsavory worlds.