The Big Combo

Raw and violent, steeped in the film noir tradition, this cult classic ventures into the seamy gangster underworld, oozing with seediness and low-life characters. Far ahead of its time, The Big Combo takes a dark, disturbing look at the battle between Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde), a good cop, and Mr. Brown (Richard Conte), a sadistic crime boss--and the cool blonde who gets caught in the middle (Jean Wallace, married to Wilde in real life at the time).

With the help of the gangster's ex-girlfriend, Diamond is determined to bring down the cunning gangland kingpin. But the gangsters are ruthless. They savagely pummel Diamond and conduct gut-wrenchingly brutal acts of torture that were unusual on screen at the time of the film's release 1955.With its unflinching direction by Joseph Lewis, The Big Combo was a worthy predecessor of later explicitly violent films that honestly explored unsavory worlds.