BIG COMBO – Ignite Films
Joseph H. Lewis was a prolific director of B-movies and television series, but his latter-day quest for fame is a brilliant film, Gun Crazy (1950). When I first saw that film it knocked me out and led me to seek out his second best known noir, Great Combo (1955) that I have always thought about Big Disappointment. But the lavish treatment it got on this new Blu-ray release has me thinking the opposite.
There are no less than three audio commentary tracks, by Imogen Sara Smith and Philippe Garnier, that I would rate as admirable translations. The third is conversational and very informative, which is what we’ve come to expect from the Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller. He tells a wealth of information about the people who made this low-budget thriller—on camera and off—without sounding pedantic or losing the line of the picture. That means there’s both praise and work for everyone from debt-crazed screenwriter Philip Yordan to composer David Raksin.
But the undisputed hero of this feature is cinematographer John Alton, who was painting with light (his name) long before lensman Gordon Willis earned the nickname “Prince of Darkness.” This beautiful black and white restoration makes us fully appreciate what he was able to accomplish even with a tight deadline and tight budget.
Cornel Wilde plays a big-city cop who harbors inappropriate feelings for gangster moll Jean Wallace (his wife in real life) and sets out to take down his powerful protector, played by Richard Conte. There are no weak links in the cast, including Brian Donlevy, Robert Middleton, Lee van Cleef, Earl Holliman, Jay Adler, Ted De Corsia, and Helen Walker.
If you’re hungry for more, there’s a video essay and a booklet with five more thought-provoking dissertations about Great Combo. And just for kicks, a bonus disc offers a second feature, The Crooked Path (1949), directed by Robert Florey and starring John Payne, Ellen Drew and Sonny Tufts (!) Producer Benedict Bogeaus probably thought he had pulled off a coup that casts Tufts as a villain but the part is firmly two-sided and so is his performance. It was worth watching just to hear my wife exclaim, “John Alton!” when he saw a perfectly drawn John Payne. Well packaged, with five newly designed small cards, Great Combo makes a good argument for keeping visual media alive.
NIGHT WORLD – Kino Lorber
I doubt any movie buff scanning the credits of this mysterious 1932 Universal Picture could resist giving it a try. Plus, it packs a lot into just 58 minutes. Released a few months after Boris Karloff played Frankenstein’s monster as director James Whale, the British actor still seems out of place as the owner of a New York speakeasy/nightclub called Happy’s Place. Where this quick, funky early code image goes into Karloff’s career progression is one of the many topics well covered by Jeremy Arnold in his insightful commentary track. I learned things I didn’t know about costars Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Clarence Muse and other lesser actors. (Another commentary by Tim Lucas and Joe Busam points out that the opening Times Square montage uses a scale model of downtown Manhattan built for Universal’s 1929 budget-busting feature. Broadway.) This mélange of melodrama, music, sex and sin even makes time for a chorus and girl production number arranged by Busby Berkeley! That’s a lot of entertainment for your movie dollar—then or now. Kino Lorber’s new release is flawless, from the opening biplane to the reminder that Good Cast is Worth Repeating.
