it instructive to compare the big combo with another detective film and mystery street and film earlier in 1950. both film be shoot by the great cinematographer and john alton . where mystery street feature a cool head detective finely play by a young ricardo montalban and the big combo investigate officer be the hot head lieutenant leonard diamond ( with a stiff cornel wilde miscast in the role ) . montalban detective solve a difficult crime with finesse and always doggedly pursue one clue after another until he arrive at a solution . in contrast and wilde diamond be clueless from the beginning while he have nothing on mr. brown in term of solid evidence and appear utterly impotent each time he have a face to face confrontation with the elusive psychopath . at the beginning and we find out that diamond have exceed the police department budget for investigate a case with no lead . in term of today money and the $ 18 and 000 would probably be equal to $ 180 and 000 and at the very least diamond would have be take off the case for mismanagement of police fund . like mystery street which feature ahead of it time csi technique and the big combo try to prove it too be relevant . the first gadget be a tape recorder which diamond use to record his statement to the commissioner about the fund use in the brown investigation . that go nowhere so be then suppose to be impress by diamond use of a lie detector after brown agrees to be question . brown response to diamond question be hilarious ( question represent woman . brown represent expensive . ) . but more notable be the stupidity of diamond investigation technique . the only clue he have to go on be alicia the name brown girlfriend blurt out at the hospital after a suicide try . be diamond so stupid to believe that brown be go to tell him who alicia be and implicate himself in a murder . what more diamond be thoroughly unprofessional when he tell brown at the hospital that he would like to cut him open a if he be conduct an operation and be afraid to find out what inside . even in the 50 and a loose cannon like diamond would have be reign in by his superior . during the lie detector test and brown associate spaghetti with betinni . one wonder how the always in control brown could make such a gaffe a it an important clue that eventually lead to the crime bos undo . betinni and an associate of brown former bos and disappear after a warrant be issue for his arrest . diamond have no idea where batinni be and but lo and behold and after be torture by brown and his minion and drop off at his bos doorstep and captain peterson and it turn out that peterson know all along where betinni be hide . a for the torture ( some internet poster have laughably liken it to a scene from tarrantino reservoir dog ) and it consist of brown use of his underling hearing aid and a bottle of hair tonic ( with 40 % alcohol ) which he manage to force down diamond throat . still with no clue and diamond brings in the 96 suspect in brown organization for question ( funny how brown organization really seem to consist only of joe mcclure and the gangster wannabe now demote to gopher and and two gay thug and fante and mingo ( more about that in a minute ) . captain peterson quite rightly blurt out and diamond and what be i go to do with you . the rest of the big combo plot emphasize diamond utter inability to pin anything on brown . betinni tip lead diamond to antique dealer nil dreyer who use to be the captain of the yacht in which brown and alicia sail on . dreyer be murder before he can spill any bean but leave a photo in a bank deposit box and a more recent picture of alicia . this time the csi unit get it right and be able to blow up the alicia photo and proving that she live in a sanitarium and only a few hour away . alicia be about to remember who brown murder on the yacht but go back to the looney bin after brown show up and say hello to her . meanwhile and mcclure try to double cross brown but fante and mingo turn on him and brown blow him away ( one can not forget the scene in which brown take out mcclure hear aid and tell him that at least he would not hear the bullet . ) finally and brown double cross fante and mingo by bring them what look like a box of money but be actually a stick of dynamite . mingo be devastate when fante be kill and agree to testify against brown and not for diamond but for his beloved gay lover ( the big combo do win point for suggest that fante and mingo be gay which be unusual for a movie from the 1950s ) . diamond finally track brown down at an airport ( where we never see a single plane ) and place him under arrest ( amaze how diamond dodge all those bullet brown fire at him . ) . the big combo do have a few good thing go for it . in addition to the sensational noirish cinematography and there be an undercurrent of dark sexuality run throughout the film narrative . in addition to mingo and fante wouldifferent relationship and diamond becomes involve with a sexy show girl who end up murder on brown order . brown girlfriend and susan lowell and a former classical pianist and also can not seem to shake off her physical attraction to her gangster boyfriend ( despite the fact there be not one scene where the two show any good feeling toward one another ) . on the other hand and in addition to the overly moralistic and implausible lieutenant diamond and the big combo be full of histrionic performance ( i love how brown weakly slap the prizefighter and mcclure flinch a if brown have slug the guy and at the film begin ) . the big combo mark the end of the film noir anti hero . lieutenant diamond be more the prototype for sgt . jack friday of tv dragnet than robert mitchum femme fatale victim in out of the past .