"The Big Combo" is a lesser-known late noir masterpiece--after trying to finish watching it for nearly two years, I just now got done seeing it finally. And I was glad I did. (Every time I started watching in the past, something or other would come up and I'd never get around to it again--nothing to do with the movie though, as I always found the beginning super intriguing.)
So the beginning: we start with the mob boss's girl, Susan and her attempt to go out/leave on her own. We find out that Brown--the mob boss--likes to keep an eye on her at all times. Seeing her, I wouldn't blame him. She is a looker indeed--but in a robust, kind of able-bodied way--played to a T by Jean Wallace. Wallace is emblematic of the movie in many ways--not big-budget, not super iconic, not well known enough--but that is her and the movie's charm. While better known actresses and movies tend to have smoother operations attached to them-including co-stars and movie sets, both the female lead here and the movie are much more modest. In other words, Jean Wallace is stunning but no Audrey Hepburn--thankfully so. I am sick and tired of watching pencil-thin leading ladies on film. Jean Wallace--and other women in the movie--have hips and shoulders and it was so nice to see that.
Anyway, the movie has many memorable scenes, some of them brutal--including a murder scene of total silence--that at no moment do we feel like we're watching anything extraneous or unnecessary. A nearly pitch-perfect noir.
So the beginning: we start with the mob boss's girl, Susan and her attempt to go out/leave on her own. We find out that Brown--the mob boss--likes to keep an eye on her at all times. Seeing her, I wouldn't blame him. She is a looker indeed--but in a robust, kind of able-bodied way--played to a T by Jean Wallace. Wallace is emblematic of the movie in many ways--not big-budget, not super iconic, not well known enough--but that is her and the movie's charm. While better known actresses and movies tend to have smoother operations attached to them-including co-stars and movie sets, both the female lead here and the movie are much more modest. In other words, Jean Wallace is stunning but no Audrey Hepburn--thankfully so. I am sick and tired of watching pencil-thin leading ladies on film. Jean Wallace--and other women in the movie--have hips and shoulders and it was so nice to see that.
Anyway, the movie has many memorable scenes, some of them brutal--including a murder scene of total silence--that at no moment do we feel like we're watching anything extraneous or unnecessary. A nearly pitch-perfect noir.