A great old film noir from 1955 starring Cornel Wilde. The Big Combo, directed by Joseph H. Lewis is about a tormented detective, Leonard Diamond, who becomes obsessed with taking down a nasty gangster called Mr. Brown. There’s a woman stuck in the middle and Diamond wants to save her.

The film is loaded with superb noir imagery and maintains a good level of tension all the way through. There are also lots of choice tough-guy lines.