#The Big Combo

[cultofdilfism]

[mister-warmth]

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[greasyfilms]

Some of the great film noir visuals of cinematographer John Alton.

[commiegoth]

Fante and Mingo greatest hits

[theonethatyoudreamon]

"honey" 🤨🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈?

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The Big Combo (1955) Joseph H. Lewis

December 10th 2023

[tourneurs]

“I’m gonna do you a favor. You won’t hear the bullets.”

The Big Combo (1955) dir. Joseph H. Lewis

[sweetlullabyebye]

Lee Van Cleef in a few movies because I found 'The Lee Van Cleef Archives' and entire scenes or movies he played in on Youtube:

(movies: Treasure of Ruby Hills--The Naked Street--Raiders of Old California--The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms--Kansas City Confidential--Accused of Murder--High Noon--The Big Combo)

[angel-eyes]

Top 5 ships

This has sat ROTTING in my inbox sorry 😭😭

1: Tuco and Blondie (tgtbatu)

2: Pete Nolan and Gil Favor (I tried liking rowdy and Mr. favor but the age gap was wayyy too off putting. 🙃)

3: Crockett and Tubbs (Miami vice)

4: Saul Goodman and Kim Wexler (Better call Saul)

5: Fante and Mingo (the big combo)

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[musicandoldmovies]

Jean Wallace in The Big Combo

[mister-warmth]

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | The Big Combo (Lewis, 1950)

There’s an early scene where the mob boss played by Richard Conte articulates his philosophy. 

“So you lost. Next time you'll win. I'll show you how. Take a look at Joe McClure here. He used to be my boss, now I'm his. What's the difference between me and him? We breathe the same air, sleep in the same hotel. He used to own it! Now it belongs to me. We eat the same steaks, drink the same bourbon. Look, same manicure, same cufflinks. But there's only one difference. We don't get the same girls. Why? Because women know the difference. They got instinct. First is first, and second is nobody.”

He buys into this rigidly hierarchical view wholesale, and flaunts his superiority to the cop on his case played by Cornel Wilde in their every interaction. (Exhibit A: Conte tells Wilde he owns the shop operated by a murder victim when Wilde tries to charge him with burning a key piece of evidence contained therein.)

And it isn’t just Conte who buys into this. Conte’s dominating presence weighs heavily on second banana Brian Donlevy, who squirms when Conte tortures Wilde with loud jazz and Donlevy’s hearing aid, and certainly on his goons (one of whom is played by Lee Van Cleef), who crumble when they realize just how expendable they are. And on the women in his life, Jean Walker having attempted suicide right as we meet her, and past lover Helen Walker grasping at whatever defense  mechanisms she can to cope having been with him  And Conte’s only source of shame is his failure to have controlled Walker, so there is a hidden insecurity on his part as well. 

If anything, watching Conte and the characters directly in his orbit is so compelling that the movie gets a little less interesting when we switch over to Wilde, although he gets plenty of good scenes with Conte’s associates, and with his lover played by Helene Stanton. And in terms of noirs I’ve seen recently, Joseph H. Lewis certainly makes better use of Wilde than Carlos Tobalina did in Flesh and Bullets, at the very least by keeping the camera in focus in his scenes. 

And Lewis makes this look pretty nice too, nicely evoking the power dynamics through his blocking, and filling the frame with shadows and fog, sometimes even in indoor scenes. So obviously this is a good movie, especially as it ends with the characters walking off into that most magical place of all: Fogland. 

*stamps foggy movie punchcard*

[vladimir1200]

Jean Wallace in The Big Combo 1955, directed by Joseph H. Lewis.

[kino51]

the big combo 1955

Diamond, the only trouble with you is, you’d like to be me. You’d like to have my organization, my influence, my fix. You can’t, it’s impossible. You think it’s money. It’s not. It’s personality. You haven’t got it. You’re a cop. Slow. Steady. Intelligent. With a bad temper and a gun under your arm. With a big yen for a girl you can’t have. First is first and second is nobody. The Big Combo (1955) dir. Joseph H. Lewis