Blu-ray, DVD Release: The Big Combo

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 24, 2013
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films


The Big Combo movie scene

The final shot in 1955's The Big Combo.

Considered to be one of the great film noir crime dramas, 1955’s The Big Combo was directed by Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy).

The movie zeroes in on the battle between good and honest cop Lieutenant Diamond (Cornel Wilde), sadistic crime boss Mr. Brown (Richard Conte), and Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), a cool and beautiful blonde who gets caught in the middle. With the help of the gangster’s ex-girlfriend, Diamond is determined to bring down the cunning gangland kingpin. But the gangster and his henchmen are ruthless and they pull some pretty nasty maneuvers on Diamond.

Written by Philip Yordan (Panic in the Streets) and shot by the great noir cinematographer John Alton (He Walked by Night), The Big Combo features some of the most striking black-and-white cinematography ever seen in a nor film, including a final shot of a couple walking off into the foggy dawn as it’s illuminated by a single rotating lighthouse searchlight.

Also featuring Brian Donlevy, Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman, Olive’s newly remastered editions are taken from a version of the classic movie that was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in association with the Film Foundation.

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.