page_title: The Big Combo
section_title: Critical response
hierarchical_section_title: The Big Combo / Reception / Critical response
caption_attribution_description: English: Low-resolution reproduction of screenshot from trailer for the movie Wikipedia:en:The Big Combo (1955).
context_page_description: The Big Combo is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Joseph H. Lewis and photographed by cinematographer John Alton, with music by David Raksin.
  The film stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte and Brian Donlevy, as well as Jean Wallace, who was Wilde's wife at the time. It also included the final screen appearance of actress Helen Walker.
context_section_description: Reviews of the movie today are mostly positive. Chris Dashiell on the website CineScene finds the dialogue "run of the mill" but praises the film's director, writing that "Lewis had a remarkable ability to infuse poetry into the most banal material, and The Big Combo is one of his best efforts... it's not as startlingly inventive as Lewis's best film, Gun Crazy (1949), but it's a quality B-film, satisfying and dark."
  The staff at Variety magazine liked the film's direction, music and photography, despite "a rambling, not-too-credible plot."  They wrote, "Performances are in keeping with the bare-knuckle direction by Joseph Lewis and, on that score, are good. Low-key photography by John Alton, one of his best, and a jazz-derived score by David Raksin with solo piano by Jacob Gimpel are in keeping with the film's tough mood."
  Film critic Ed Gonzalez lauded the film in his review, writing, "Shadows and lies are the stars of The Big Combo, a spellbinding black-and-white chiaroscuro with the segmented texture of a spider's web ... John Alton's lush camera work is so dominant here you wouldn't know Joseph H. Lewis was also behind the camera. The story doesn't have any of the he-she psychosexual politicking that juices the director's Gun Crazy, but that's no loss given this film's richer returns. The set-pieces are fierce, as is the Casablanca tweak of the last shot, and Wallace's performance—a sad spectacle of a hurting creature caught between light and dark, good and evil—is one of noir's great unheralded triumphs."
  Critics have compared the quality of The Big Combo to Fritz Lang's The Big Heat as one of the great film noir detective classics in terms of style.
  The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 92% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 13 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.04/10.
caption: The iconic airport conclusion to the film demonstrates John Alton's cinematographic style
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