The Big Combo

A noir classic about a police lieutenant who comes under pressure from a gang headed by a vicious thug. He is helped by the gangster's wife, jealous at her husband's affair with another woman, who supplies him with information to help him close the net on his foe.

"Where the usual noir takes place in a nightmare world, this one seems to inhabit a dream: there's no longer fear in the images, but rather a distanced, idealized beauty." - Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader