My current novel in progress is a science-fiction noir and to put myself in the right mental head-space for plotting it out I am watching a lot of noir films. This week I discovered one that is apparently a favorite of Joss Whedon, The Big Combo. Whedon nods to this movie in his feature film Serenity by naming  twins character duo after a two-man button team from this film, Fanty and Mingo.

This film follows a straight-laced police detective, Leonard Diamond as he tries to bring down an underworld Boss, Mr. Brown. Brown is played with oily smoothness by Richard Conte who played another slick underworld boss in the classic film The Godfather.

For most of this film, I was engaged, but not enthralled. The characters were likable enough and the writing and the production competent enough to make for a watchable experience before bed. (I like to watch 20-30 minutes of stuff to unwind after writing and editing and then go to sleep.)

I didn’t understand why someone of Joss’ talents might have a special place for this film until about an hour in and then the plot twisted into a new and novel shape. Most movies I can see their ‘surprises’ long before the actual reveal. It goes with plotting your own, but not this time. This one, and clearly I am not going to tell you what it comes out of the blue and yet was not forced or gimmicky.

The film has fallen into the public domain so you can likely find it in all sorts of places. I streamed it from Hulu. It’s less than 90 minutes and worth at least one viewing if this genre interests you.