Hardboiled Wonderland

The Big Combo (1955) - Lewis Here is the setup: The hardboiled detective, Diamond (Cornel Wilde) is on the trail of a blonde mob girl, Susan (Jean Wallace), in order to get to the ruthless mob boss Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). But Mr. Brown is a cautious and methodical man to pin down of any wrong doing. Also, our detective is falling for the blonde. With no evidence of crimes, his police captain is pressuring him to let go of the Brown case. But Diamond is relentless.

With Mr. Brown's henchmen Fante (young Lee Van Cleef) and Mingo (Earl Holliman) knocking off any witness or associates one by one, including Diamond's brunette burlesque girl, Rita (Helene Stanton), things are getting personal....

The Big Combo is all about John Alton the cinematographer. Jean Wallace glimmers. Lee Van Cleef's never been this angular under the dim overhead lighting. The smokes, rapid machine gun fire, and shadows, those shadows. It's all too damn gorgeous. Who cares about the morality tale if you got those shadows?

Hunting the White Man

Naked Prey (1966) - Wilde

A manager of the white man's hunting party (Cornel Wilde, director/producer/star) in South African jungle knows the area and the customs of its natives. When the party encounters a seemingly friendly tribe, who asks for offering to their chief, the insolent, fat white man who only wants to shoot elephants in the face for sport and go in to slave trade rejects the tribe's bribe despite our manager's urging.


After successful elephant hunting, the party is raided and captured by the same tribe they insulted. Many meet grisly death - covered in clay and roasted alive, feathered and tarred and clubbed to death by the entire topless tribal women, trapped in a fire pit with a snake, etc. Our manager is saved for the last - stripped down and given a little bit of head start for 'hunting of the white man'.


The rest of the movie is pretty much a long cardiovascular activity. Our hero is not particularly resourceful but he sure can run. While he's killing and outsmarting many pursuers, we are introduced to many African nature settings - baboon fighting off cheetah (ooh, symbolism?), lion snatching off a speared gazelle, etc, etc.


The most poignant moment comes later, when our hero stumbles upon a tribe getting seized by another slave trading tribe. The sole survivor, a little girl, thanks to our hero's diversion, in turn saves him from drowning. They share food and fire and exchange songs.


Naked Prey is an oddity. It clearly says something about race, but rather concentrates its energy on the chase. But it's not overtly racist and videogamey as Apocalypto, nor as lyrical as Walkabout. Our hero is no McGyver either. He suffers from starvation, exhaustion and stomachache. The mutual respect is felt by the end and I enjoyed it.