The Big Combo takes a long, low angle on a city populated with characters, one less sympathetic than the next, our heroes the least of all. Cornel Wilde is a cop, hunting gangster Richard Conte for reasons below and beyond the call of duty, having to do with his obsessive attachment to his ex-mistress (Jean Wallace) who has left him for the ruthless Conte. This is Joseph H. Lewis' most accomplished film noir, in which a classic Lewis theme--the hunter haunted by his prey--is beautifully realized in the bold chiaroscuro cinematography of John Alton and a terse script by Philip Yordan. They evoke a dark, compulsive reality--the concentric circles of sadomasochistic love. Like Gun Crazy, this is a subversive film: there is the (now well known) sexually suggestive moment between Conte and Wallace which Lewis fought hard to push by the censors; but the most revealing relationship exists on the sidelines, between two hired killers who display a complex devotion. Finally, Lewis counters the ruthlessness of his male protagonists with the strength of his female characters who unite, after a fashion, to defeat them.