Review: The Big Combo
Police lieutenant Cornel Wilde is hell-bent on bringing gangster Richard Conte down, but the latter is too slippery to thus far get caught with his hands dirty. Wilde has also fallen for Conte’s sad girlfriend Jean Wallace and wants to rescue her, despite being warned to let it go by his boss (Robert Middleton) who thinks it’s become a waste of time and police resources. Wilde is undeterred, and thinks the key to bringing the mobster down lies with the mysterious disappearance of someone named ‘Alicia’. Earl Holliman and Lee Van Cleef play hitmen in Conte’s employ, Brian Donlevy is Conte’s chief underling, and Helene Stanton is Wilde’s dancer squeeze. This 1955 noir from director Joseph H. Lewis (a veteran of B-movies and TV work) seems to get more praise with age, and it is indeed a solid film. I have to say though, that I was more interested in the actors, characters, and technical aspects than I was invested in the actual plot as scripted by Philip Yordan ( “El Cid” , “The...