Joseph H. Lewis's The Big Combo (1955), one of my favorite film noirs, is now on Netflix Watch Instantly. Between John Alton's cinematography, the homoerotic subtext, the graphic and creative depiction of torture (with a hearing aid!), and hardboiled dialogue, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Here are some notes I took during a research trip at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library from the Production Code Administration (PCA) file and the news clipping files for the film. Note: I was unable to import my footnotes. For those interested, I can either e-mail the below text with footnotes or I can comment on the exact sources below.
