The Big Combo (1955) Queer Film B-

DIRECTOR: Joseph Lewis

Lt. Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) has spent years trying to bring down crime boss Mr. Brown (Richard Conte), but he lacks the evidence to make anything stick. His superiors order him off the case, yet Diamond persists, driven by equal parts justice and personal obsession. Brown rules through calculated brutality, aided by his two henchmen, Fante and Mingo—played by Lee Van Cleef and Earl Holliman.

Fante and Mingo are unmistakably a gay couple. Everyone on screen seems to know it, and no one questions it. They share a bedroom (separate beds, of course), move as a unit, and radiate a mutual devotion that somehow slipped past the Hays Office. Their chosen profession only heightens their fascination—and, frankly, their sex appeal. It remains one of the most daring queer representations in 1950s American cinema.

‘The cops will be looking for us in every closet.’

Fante to Mingo in “The Big Combo”

Arguably Joseph H. Lewis’s greatest film and a cornerstone of classic noir, The Big Combo is also a showcase for John Alton’s extraordinary black‑and‑white cinematography—those sculpted shadows, those shafts of light, that unforgettable torture scene. Conte, Wilde, and Jean Wallace (Wilde’s wife at the time) all deliver strong performances, as does Brian Donlevy. The film also marks the final screen appearance of Helen Walker, so memorable opposite Tyrone Power in Edmund Goulding’s Nightmare Alley. David Raksin provides the moody, memorable score.

The screenplay is by Philip Yordan.

The title refers to the crime syndicate run by Mr. Brown—his “big combo,” the machine Diamond is determined to dismantle.

Allied Artists

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