The Big Combo

Released Feb 13, 1955

1h 29m

Crime

Drama

List

93%

14 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Film noir about a police lieutenant who comes under pressure from a gang headed by a vicious thug. He is helped by the gangster's wife, jealous at her husband's affair with another woman, who supplies him with information to help him close the net on his foe.

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JJJJJJ J

Underrated noir that deserves more attention. The film played with some really interesting themes that both worked for the genre but also kept the movie engaging. The character creations was quite good and though most fell into cliche categories they also felt unique and individual. There were some really good one liners in this movie as well. I would recommend this film to any fans of the genre.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/16/23

Full Review

deke p

1955! Film Noir. Great cast. Love the Cornell. And that blonde was freshfaced and glookn! Never heard of before saw on tv 5.2021. And by amazing coincidence, just this morning I had The BIG COMBO at Taco Bell. What are the odds.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Jessica C

It's a nice film noir but nothing too special. Helped me pass the time though!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/29/21

Full Review

Audience Member

Better than big combo Blobbo order from Wendy's.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

paul d

The Big Combo is a great noir crime drama and one of the best "B movies" I've seen. Joseph H. Lewis crafted an engrossing film, and deserves credit on many fronts. With a great economy of style, his scene transitions leave no time for our minds to wander. He also keeps us focused on on-screen details with some fleeting and audacious material for 1955, hinting at a homosexual relationship between Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman and showing the beginning of a particularly overt sexual moment between Richard Conte and Jean Wallace. Lewis and the producers also deserve great credit for assembling such an impressive number of recognizable and skilled actors in a B film: Cornell Wilde, Richard Conte, Brian Donleavy, Lee Van Cleef, Robert Middleton, Earl Holliman,Ted de Corsia, Jay Adler, Phil Van Zandt and John Hoyt. Aside from a wooden performance from model-turned-actress Wallace, each of them developed their characters well, and quickly. We are treated to a very fine Richard Conte playing to perfection (and to type) a suave and cold-blooded bad guy. Ted de Corsia, with only five minutes of screen time, leaves us feeling like we know everything about his character. And how did they convince tough-guy Brian Donlevy to agree to a role against type, where he plays a defeated and humiliated man who's still in the crime business because that's the only business he knows? Donlevy pulls this off with grace and subtlety.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Tom M

Great noire. Wilde is very good as is the remainder of the cast. But it's Conte's cruelty, cunning and soullessness that puts him among the best movie crime bosses of all time.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/07/20

Full Review

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Joseph H. Lewis

Director

Cornel Wilde

Police Lt. Leonard Diamond

Richard Conte

Mr. Brown

Brian Donlevy

Joe McClure

Jean Wallace

Susan Lowell

Robert Middleton

Police Capt. Peterson

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Keith Phipps

The Dissolve

Noir wasn't new in 1955, but The Big Combo still found plenty of life within its limits.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 14, 2013

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

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.

Jan 25, 2008

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Where the usual noir takes place in a nightmare world, this one seems to inhabit a dream: there's no longer fear in the images, but rather a distanced, idealized beauty.

Jan 25, 2008

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a compelling, promising setup that's employed to mostly watchable yet undeniably erratic effect...

Rated: 2.5/4

Dec 18, 2020

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

A pond of shifting alliances and kinks

Oct 17, 2009

Full Review

TV Guide

A fatalistic symphony of light and shade.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 25, 2008

Full Review

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Synopsis

Film noir about a police lieutenant who comes under pressure from a gang headed by a vicious thug. He is helped by the gangster's wife, jealous at her husband's affair with another woman, who supplies him with information to help him close the net on his foe.

Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Producer: Walter Mirisch
Screenwriter: Philip Yordan
Distributor: Allied Artists Pictures
Production Co: Allied Artists
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 13, 1955, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 10, 2016
Runtime: 1h 29m

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