The Big Combo (1955): watch the full film free, legally

Diamond’s pursuit of Mr. Brown

Joseph H. Lewis directed The Big Combo, a 1955 American film noir written by Philip Yordan and photographed by John Alton. Cornel Wilde plays Police Lieutenant Leonard Diamond, whose personal campaign against the gangster Mr. Brown is entangled with his fixation on Brown’s girlfriend, Susan Lowell. Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy and Jean Wallace star, while the supporting cast includes Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman and Helen Walker in her final screen appearance. Wallace was Wilde’s wife at the time.

Diamond is assembling a legal case against Brown, but his central lead is a woman called Alicia. Susan is despondent and suicidal, unable to escape Brown’s control. Brown responds to Diamond’s investigation with force. Accompanied by his lieutenant McClure and the thugs Fante and Mingo, he has Diamond kidnapped and tortured, then leaves him outside his police captain’s apartment after forcing alcohol-based hair tonic down his throat.

A former Brown associate named Bettini tells Diamond that Alicia was Brown’s wife. Bettini suspects she was sent to Sicily with the former mob boss Grazzi, murdered and tied to a boat anchor. Diamond questions Dreyer, an antique-store operator financed by Brown who also skippered the boat, but Dreyer denies involvement and will not talk. McClure murders Dreyer shortly after he leaves the shop.

Diamond urges Susan to leave Brown and admits that he may be in love with her. A photograph of Brown, Alicia and Grazzi on the boat prompts Susan to confront Brown. He says Alicia is alive in Sicily with Grazzi. Soon afterward, Brown orders Diamond’s death, but Fante and Mingo go to Diamond’s apartment and mistakenly kill his burlesque dancer girlfriend, Rita. An up-to-date photograph of Alicia, with snow visible on the ground, convinces Diamond that it was not taken in Sicily. He traces Alicia to a sanitarium, where she is living under another name, and asks for her help.

A title reshaped during development

The project was first called The Hoodlum and grew from a story by Philip Yordan. Hugo Fregonese was originally intended to direct for producer Milton Sperling, who tried to cast Spencer Tracy in the lead. The script was in great demand, and Yordan reportedly turned down offers of $75,000.

The completed film became a co-production of Theodora, Cornel Wilde and Jean Wallace’s company, and Security, a company belonging to Phil Yordan and Sidney Harmon. Wilde changed the title to The Big Combination, and Wallace suggested shortening it to The Big Combo. Jack Palance had originally been cast opposite Wilde. United Artists was to provide financing, but withdrew, after which Allied Artists stepped in.

David Raksin composed music that does without the orchestral scoring typical of most film noir. The score instead uses mostly brass and woodwind instruments. Pianist Jakob Gimpel, credited as Jacob Gimpel, appears in one scene performing Chopin’s Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39; the same performance had been heard from a recording in an earlier scene.

Alton’s low-key images and Raksin’s score

Lewis said the film had “a very good reception on that, extremely fine.” The staff at Variety liked its direction, music and photography despite what they called “a rambling, not-too-credible plot.” They found the performances good within Lewis’s “bare-knuckle direction,” and praised Alton’s low-key photography, calling it one of his best. They also described Raksin’s jazz-derived score, featuring solo piano by Jacob Gimpel, as fitting the film’s tough mood.

A pair of late-20th-century critics compared The Big Combo’s quality and style to Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat, describing both as great film noir detective classics. The film later received critical acclaim, and its airport scene has been considered one of the most memorable images in film history. Its torture scene inspired the torture scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, released in 1992.

Later restorations included a 2013 Blu-ray release by Olive Films, restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Film Foundation, and a 2018 HD restoration by Arrow Films in the United Kingdom. Ignite Films is scheduled to release a 70th Anniversary 4K restoration on 4K UHD and Blu-ray in March 2026. The film has also appeared on Turner Classic Movies’ Noir Alley with Eddie Muller.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “The Big Combo”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.