The description in the Video Hound Golden Retriever says this movie has "torture sequences ahead of its time." With that I had to see it. I wish I could've seen a better print of it, one without a few frames missing from every reel and where there were more shades of grey than just black and white but I was glad I got to see it at all.
It seems like the cheaper the production the more chiarscuro the lighting gets and that was in full effect here. Not only that, but Joseph H. Lewis (who's early works include some Bowery Boys film — this certainly is an improvement) plays around with sound and story.
In The Big Combo, Lt. Diamond is a cop who's trying to put away Mr. Brown (an unusual name for a Mafioso type, no?). There is an assortment of other characters who aren't playing their stereotyped roles. One such person is a young Lee Van Cleef (with his full head of wavy hair!) as one of Mr. Brown's thugs.
Since all my other reviews have strayed into reviewing other movies, this will be no exception. I kept thinking about Romeo Is Bleeding and Juliette Lewis' useless character.
I guess she was there to donate her body to Lena Olin's arm but who checks fingerprints after a fire, wouldn't Olin have had to pull a Slamdance and pluck out her teeth and not cut off her arm? Lewis' character was only there to make Oldman seem more corrupt, "ooh, he's got a girl on the side." So what? Oldman was doing a good enough job projecting his sleaziness without having to have all the marks of one. The whole movie could have gone by and one could probably just assume that he's cheated on his wife without having to be shown it.
The Big Combo is noir at its finest. I'd put it right up there with some of my favorites; The Big Clock, Pick-Up on South Street, Kiss of Death, Panic in the Streets, Double Indemnity, This Gun for Hire, Detour, etc). This is definitely worth a look, as is Lewis' other excursion into noir territory — Gun Crazy (not to be mistaken with the new one starring Drew Barrymore).