Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

and was careful to present organized crime as an unorganized entity. (Film Noir
screenings - http://www.noirfilm.com/Screenings_Richard_Conte.htm)
Although a film with minimal dialogue, The Big Combo uses a hard-boiled script
with some hideously black humour and suggests a dangerously obsessed sexuality for its
central trio. From very early scenes, Brown spells out his own individual credo when
bullying and lecturing a boxer who sits bloody and disheartened after losing a fight: “First
is first and second is nobody!” From the outset, we never get to know how Brown really
makes his money from the Bolmec Corporation, “the largest pool of illegal money in the
world”, as Captain Peterson puts it when handing the case to Lt Diamond. However, with
his fast, clipped way of speaking, we soon enter into Brown’s mind and understand that the
key to his succeeding in life is hate.
The relationship between Susan Lowell and Mr. Brown is in itself a blend of
fatalistic deference combined with a feeling of raw sexual abandon. Throughout the film,
Brown’s combative words are fuelled with perverse sexuality, as when, for example, he
lectures his men to pursue power as this will mean that “the girls will come tumbling after
you”. As for Susan, she seems to be totally defenceless before Brown’s sadistic seduction,
resigning herself to sexual dependence on Brown. When she asks him for affection, he
replies “Love? We can talk about love some another time”. The exhilarating mix of sex
and violence makes The Big Combo one of the few noir films fuelled by a vicious
sexuality, with nearly all relationships being defined by varying degrees of sexual
obsession. The conspicuous homosexuality of Mingo (Earl Holliman) and Fante (Lee Van
Cleef), Brown’s hit-men, is associated with a tendency to sadism and torture, as they refine
the conventions of their profession into a shared sexual ritual. Their homosexuality is less
sublimated than in any other noir film: the two men, who are constantly at Mr Brown’s
beck and call, are always seen together, sleep in the same room like a married couple, and
are considerate and thoughtful towards each other. And this attitude remains even until
death, stressing their already emotionally powerful relationship, almost in a theatrical
manner. When Fante dies during an explosion, his friend Mingo holds his body and, in
tears, calls out to his beloved partner, “Don’t leave me, Fante!” 107
107 After the screening of the film during the “Third Annual Palm Springs Film Noir Festival in 2003”, Earl
Holliman, who played Mingo, remarked that “We shared a pair of pajamas, Lee’s wearing the bottoms and
I’m wearing the top of the pajamas and it’s pretty obvious what’s going on” (De Stefano 2006:226).
380