The Big Combo

The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955) A girl (Jean Wallace) runs away in the dark. Down murky corridors and naked open spaces where she can't hide, she runs through a stadium promenade and nobody notices her because their eyes are on a boxing match, where every light of the facility seems to be focused. But, she's not the only one running, as she's followed closely by two goons, Fante (Lee Van Cleef) and Mingo (Earl Holliman), who have split up and are trying to catch her in a pincer move. That's their job tonight, to look after the girl, Susan Lowell, who's the girl of Mr. Brown (Richard Conte), who's attending the fight—it's a business matter for him—and Mr. Brown wants her to see it. But, she's run out in Round 3 and he's mad about it. When Mr. Brown gets mad, that's when Fante and Mingo enter the picture and they finally catch up to her and try to man-handle her back to the fight. But, she decides she's hungry and although Mingo wants to drag her back to the fight-crowd, Fante tells Mingo to hail down a cab. "Mr Brown says to keep her happy." Fat chance.

Down at the 93rd precinct, they're not happy, either. There's an ongoing investigation into Mr. Brown that's been going on for too much of a time and two people are frustrated by it: the first is Capt. Peterson (Robert Middleton) who's mad at all the tax-payers' money he's been laying out for no results; and then there's Detective Lt. Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) who's been spending all that money and who's come up with bupkis except for frustration and the captain breathing down his neck. Diamond wants to turn the heat up on Brown, but the boss has his job on the line, too, and he wants to drop the whole shooting match. Plus, he thinks there might be something more to this for Diamond—he reminds him that he's been tailing Susan Lowell wherever she goes and when Diamond gripes that he paid those expenses himself, the Captain brings the hammer down: "But, I'm not in love with her! You are!" The Captain is starting to think it's all personal and a wild-skirt chase.

But, it's more than that. It's a grudge match. Find a crime in town and it eventually snakes up to Brown. Take down Brown and the 93rd gets a lot quieter. Then, when Susan shows up in the hospital for swallowing pills, Diamond thinks he has something: Susan keeps talking about an "Alicia" from Brown's past and when Diamond hauls in every Brown flunky for questioning and puts Brown under a lie detector, "Alicia" makes the needle jump the Richter scale but there's no answers from the big man. Just more patter from the mutual contempt society. "A righteous man" Brown scoffs to the old boss (Brian Donlevy) he took over the gang from. "Makes $96.50 a week—the bellboys at my hotels make more than that!" But, Diamond does get some respect, if you call taking the trouble to put him on a hit-list respectable.

The Big Combo may not be the best noir-mystery of the genre, there are no stars with bright futures of note (unless you count Van Cleef), the sets are cheap—heck, the director didn't know he was working on it until a week before shooting—but, it skirts the edges of acceptability for its time with an unsympathetic authority figure, a flashy villain (Conte is brilliant in it, rattling off dialog with a no-cares contemptuous smile), some nice hard-nosed dialog, and an artist's touch with the lighting. And, it suggests a lot more than it shows—like Susan's codependent sexual kink for Brown, the "longtime companionship" of Fante and Mingo, and some brutal violence that usually happens off-screen, but comes front-and-center in a scene that features torture-by-hearing-aid (they should have had Wilde's Diamond character shouting his dialog for the rest of the movie). The movie takes chances, at a point when many film-noir tropes were already played out.

But, the star of the show is cinematographer John Alton, who worked shadowy wonders for cash-strapped studios like Republic Pictures and eye-popping color scenes for the extravagant M-G-M, and brought rich dark spaces pierced by shimmering light to whatever set-up he touched. Born in Hungary, Alton began his camera work in the silent era and worked all the way up to 1960's Elmer Gantry. He was quick, economical, and created stunning images that arrest the eye and catch the breath. The Big Combo, for all its outlandishness, becomes more centered because of Alton's photography. You take it more seriously and things matter a bit more. Things "hit" harder because of the look of the thing.

Since 2007, The Big Combo has been in the public domain and, for that reason, we're featuring it in this post below.

The Bedford Incident

The Bedford Incident (James B. Harris, 1965) A veritable volume of Bartlett's Quotations fills my head after seeing The Bedford Incident. 

For instance, the astronaut's description of his job as "98% tedium punctuated by moments of sheer terror," and Elwood P. Dowd's "You can be 'oh-so-smart' or 'oh-so-pleasant'—I recommend "pleasant." Then, because the story is basically, "Moby Dick in The Cold War," there are all sorts of Melville quotes...and one bad joke: "Cook 'em, Dan-O."

It's that last one that sticks, though. The Bedford Incident is, basically, a terrible, terrible joke with a possible several mega-tonnage punchline. And director James B. Harris, who, before making this film, was Stanley Kubrick's film-making partner, can't have missed the thought as his ex was making an out-and-out comedy of errors out of the nuclear arms race.  

But where that one took to the air, The Bedford Incident plays out at sea in a cat-and-mouse game between a Soviet nuclear sub and a naval destroyer. In command is Captain Eric Finlander (Richard Widmark, steely with just a touch of baleful twitchiness that goes full-on berzerkoid in an interview), a determined commander who takes enormous pride in the proficiency of his crew, and in the hunt and pursuit of his targets. As an advisor is a former Nazi U-boat commander Wolfgang Shrepke (Eric Portman), who was responsible for the most tonnage (ours) sunk during the second World War. Also on board is reporter Ben Munceford (Sidney Poitier), who serves as an exposition conduit and Royal Pain In The Ass. Among the crew are Martin Balsam as the ship's new doc, James MacArthur as a too-eager ensign, Wally Cox as the sonar bat, and if you're watching early and quickly, there's a young Donald Sutherland as a garbage analyst—garbage being clues to conditions on the enemy boat, and age-analysis gives tracking position and history.

It shows how extreme the measures are on the Bedford, how detail oriented, how precise, how strategic and how puckered the thought processes go into keeping an eye on the enemy. And once found, Finlander will pursue chasing Soviet subs out of territorial waters, even forcing them to stay underwater until they're desperate for air, provoking confrontation. When your Nazi adviser tells you he's scared of your methods, it means you might be going so overboard as to pro-actively lower the life-rafts.

If you're immersed at all in pop-culture, you can see elements of Bedford in such disparate strategy plays as "Star Trek" and The Hunt for Red October. And such gamesmanship is all well and good in limited skirmishes. But, when the arsenal is nuclear? Do you really want a cigarette in a room full of gasoline?  

No, and that the game is played despite the mega-stakes makes the movie and its characters seem not just petty, but a little dim for all the talk of brilliance. The point of hubris is well taken, but the point was better made as an out-and-out black comedy about short-term, selfish interests in the face of global catastrophe.

Don't Make a Scene: The Godfather Part II

The Story: Up until The Godfather Part III (or as it's now known The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone) this last scene from The Godfather Part II was the last we would have seen of Mafia chieftain Michael Corleone, who—as that particular film makes plain—has a path as Mafia Don far different from that of his father, Vito.

The previous Don managed to keep his family (only to see it torn asunder by the events of the first "Godfather" movie) while his son, in an effort to protect his father, sacrifices his future...and his family...for a security that may never exist, especially as his trade involves organized crime.

At the end, it is apparent that Michael, now aging, is isolated, alone, and without his wife and children...as far as blood relatives, he's managed to have killed quite a few of them. At the time the film was released, there was no doubt that Michael, in his quest for power, has lost everything, and the future that he had such high hopes for (in his youth) would never come to be despite his ambitions and earlier protestations. Oh, it's true that he wouldn't become a man like his father...but, one suspects that he never suspected that he would be worse.

But, that last scene reveals the "Godfather Saga" to be a tragedy (despite the lionization of "Godfather culture" among fans). There is no triumph in gaining power if you lose everything else. And, if The Godfather Part II wasn't abundantly clear in that point, Coppola's return to the story for Part III/Coda made it unambiguous and twisted the dagger of Fate. 

But, I remember this scene of Michael reflecting on the time when he "broke" with the Family, and remember being elated that they got so many people back from the first movie for the flashback: James Caan's Sonny, Gianni Russo's Carlo Rizzi, and Abe Vigota's Tessio. And then you realize with a thump that two of those characters died on Michael's orders, as did John Cazale's Fredo in events of Part II. Maybe it isn't so much a flashback as a "haunt." 

But, if you read all the way to the end, what we got on-screen at the end of Part II isn't what was originally written for the movie. What's on-screen is superb. What the plan was, though, is much richer.

 

Also, apologies for the racial slurs. But, the people uttering them are violent mobsters, so please put that in context. Don't end up like Sonny...or Michael.

 

The Set-up: It is 1961. The main branch of the Corleone Family has moved from New York to Lake Tahoe with their business in Las Vegas. But, the cost has been huge: Mike Pentangelli (Michael V. Gazzo), the last of the Corleone capo's in New York is dead; Mama Corleone (Morgana King) has died of natural causes; Kay Corleone (Diane Keaton) has divorced The Don, Michael (Al Pacino); and Michael has ordered and had carried out the death of his last remaining blood-brother, Fredo (John Cazale). Alone in his Lake Tahoe retreat, Michael contemplates what has become of his family...and him.

 

Action.

 

MICHAEL sits down in the boat house

DISSOLVE TO: 1941 the Corleone family is sitting at the table in the kitchen.

SONNY Hey 

SONNY ...everybody come on pay attention. Come here. 

SONNY EVERYONE this is my friend CARLO RIZZI.

[CARLO RIZZI walks in.]

SONNY This is my brother FREDO -- oh you know FREDO sure don't you.

FREDO (Sure)

SONNY This is my step brother TOM. 

SONNY That's his uh, girl Theresa. 

SONNY And this cute little thing over here -- this is my sister CONNIE. I was telling you about her, huh. 

SONNY Come on say hello to CARLO. 

SONNY He's good looking isn't he?

CONNIE Yes.

SONNY Oh, that droopy thing over there -- 

SONNY that's my brother Mike. 

SONNY We call him JOE College, you know what I mean. 

SONNY Go ahead. Sit down. Talk to each other.

TOM Sit down.

SONNY Hey, Mr. Einstein...  (It's a) joke.

[Salvatore TESSIO walks in.]  

TESSIO Here's the cake. 

TOM Hey, Sally, get in here!  

TESSIO I was scared -- I was scared. 

TESSIO Where's your father?  

TOM We sent him on a wild goose chase -- Christmas shopping.

CONNIE Here..

SONNY Oh, let's see that thing.  

[TESSIO reveals the cake.]

CONNIE Beautiful!  

SONNY Oh, golly that's nice. Huh.  

CONNIE Should I put the candles on now.  

SONNY Yea go on -- 

SONNY you help her, right CARLO.  

CARLO Sure.  

[SONNY takes a lick of the frosting.]

MICHAEL How are you, Sal?

SONNY Hey what is that, rum? 

TESSIO Yea.  

SONNY Boy that's good.

SONNY Hey...

[SONNY wipes some on TOM.]

TOM Hey, get outta here.

[Then touches some pasta.]  

CONNIE Hey SONNY don't touch the ante-pasta until Pop gets here.

[Fredo slaps his wrist]  

[He begins to mock-fight with FREDO.]

TOM He's not ugly! 

(TOM laughs)  

SONNY Yea, come on.  

[SONNY sits down and begins to smoke.]  

SONNY Ah, say -- what do you think of the nerve of those Japs -- those slanty eyed bastards, huh. 

SONNY Dropping bombs in out back yard -- and on Pops birthday ya know.  

FREDO Aw, they didn't know it was Pop's birthday.  

SONNY "They didn't know it was Pop's (birthday)." 

TOM Well, we should have expected it after the oil embargo.  

SONNY What do you mean expect it -- expect it or not they have no right dropping bombs. What are you a Jap lover or something -- are you on their side? 

TESSIO I understand thirty thousand men enlisted this morning. 

SONNY A bunch of saps.  

MICHAEL Why are they saps?  

CONNIE SONNY come on we don't have to talk about the war.  

SONNY  Hey beat it -- you go talk to CARLO alright. 

SONNY They're saps because they risk their lives for strangers.

MICHAEL Now that's Pop talking.

SONNY You're god damn right that's Pop talking.

MICHAEL They risk, they risk their lives for their country.

SONNY Your country's not your blood -- 

SONNY you remember that. 

MICHAEL I don't feel that way.  

SONNY "I don't feel that way.."

SONNY Well if you don't feel like that why don't you just quit college and go to -- go to join the Army. 

MICHAEL I did -- 

MICHAEL I enlisted in the Marines.  

[Everyone is silent.]  

TOM MICHAEL why -- why didn't you come to us? 

MICHAEL What do you mean?

TOM I mean Pop had to pull a lot of strings to get you a deferment.

MICHAEL I didn't ask for it.  

MICHAEL I didn't ask for a deferment -- and I didn't want it.  

[SONNY punches MICHAEL and begins to get in a fight.]  

SONNY What's wrong... 

TOM Come on, come on knock it off. 

TESSIO SONNY --  

SONNY Punk! 

TESSIO SONNY -- SONNY sit down.  

SONNY Go on! 

TESSIO Sit down. Siddown. 

KATHRYN CORLEONE (One of Sonny's twins) Mommy, 

KATHRYN CORLEONE (One of Sonny's twins)Daddy's fighting again.  

SONNY Go show CARLO the tree.

KATHRYN CORLEONE (One of Sonny's twins) Go Ahead!  

FRANCESCA CORLEONE (One of Sonny's twins) -- Uncle MICHAEL, MAMA. Daddy!

SONNY Nice -- nice -- 

SONNY break your father's heart on his birthday.

FREDO That's swell, Mike -- 

FREDO congratulations.  

SONNY That's right, go on, encourage him. 

SONNY I want -- I want you to get me a drink -- 

SONNY Go on.

TOM Mikey...  

TOM Now you don't understand but, uh, 

TOM your father has plans for you. Now many times he and I have talked about your future.  

MICHAEL Talked to my father about my future?

TOM (quietly) Yeah.

MICHAEL My future.

TOM Mikey, he has high hopes for you. 

MICHAEL Well I have my own plans for my future.  

SONNY What'd you go to collage to get stupid? You're really stupid.  

CONNIE He's here, come on.  

[Everybody but MICHAEL walks out.]  

SONNY Come on -- 

SONNY come on -- 

SONNY stupid! 

[MICHAEL sits alone at the table while the rest are heard in the distance waiting to their surprise the Godfather.] 

EVERYONE Surprise! -- 

EVERYONE For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow

EVERYONE that nobody can deny -- 

EVERYONE that nobody can deny 

DISSOLVE TO: 

VITO holding MICHAEL's hand 

and waving good bye in Sicily. 

DISSOLVE TO: 

MICHAEL sitting alone at the compound.

FADE TO BLACK 

THE END OF "THE GODFATHER PART II" 

 

The Godfather Part II

 

Words by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola 

Pictures by Gordon Willis and Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather Part II is available on DVD, Blu-Ray and 4k UHD from Paramount Home Video.

Interestingly, this is not how The Godfather Part II originally ended. Things change when making a movie, though. Like Marlon Brando doesn't show up for his one day of shooting as the Don and it has to be re-written...that day. Or maybe make-up doesn't work the way you think it will. Or Al Pacino wants a re-write. Richard Castellano wants more money and to write his part. For all sorts of reasons, things changed. As did the originally scripted ending. There's a lot that's similar. There's a LOT that's different and those things incorporate things from the original Godfather, and also things that would not be discussed again until the writing of The Godfather Part III.

 

This is the SECOND DRAFT 

dated September 24, 1973

MED. VIEW The peninsula of the private Corleone Harbor. We see the figures of two people, seated at a table. 

MED. VIEW Michael sits at a table having a sparse lunch. He is attended by his sister Connie, who seems to be the closest person now living on the estate with him. We see from the way she pampers him with his lunch, that she has fallen into the role of a surrogate Mother-Wife. He seems older than his years, as though his illness, diabetes, has taken its toll. 

CONNIE Don't worry; I'm sure he got here on time. The roads from the airport are so windy, it takes forever; I've driven them myself. 

She picks up some of the serving plates that he has left untouched. 

CONNIE I'll bring him out to you as soon as he comes. 

She moves back to the main house. 

 

MED. CLOSE VIEW ON MICHAEL 

He turns and looks at the rough water of the lake for a moment. He slowly takes a sip of wine. 

 

EXT. A PLACE IN THE GARDEN - DAY 

There are a few chairs. 

 

MED. VIEW ON ANTHONY CORLEONE 

He is eighteen years old. 

ANTHONY Hello, Dad. 

VIEW ON MICHAEL squinting up at his son. 

MICHAEL Anthony. 

He rises, and reaches up to his son, who is now taller than he; he embraces him. 

MICHAEL You've grown so tall... so tall in the last year. You're much taller than me. 

ANTHONY I was taller than you when I was fourteen. 

MICHAEL Sit down. Your Aunt Connie and I waited for you to have some lunch, but now it's all dried out. 

ANTHONY I'm not hungry. 

MICHAEL Well, that's alright... alright. Good. You'll graduate in another year, isn't that right? You know... I never finished college. I was a good student, but I never finished. Of course, there was a war then. 

Connie approaches them. 

CONNIE Don't let me interrupt anything, this will just take a second. Here.

(she takes out a small needle, and begins to prepare it) 

CONNIE Your father has to have his insulin shot. Why don't you go to your room and put your things away, Anthony. 

She begins to give Michael the shot. 

MICHAEL Hurry back; we'll talk. We'll talk. 

Anthony goes on his way to the house with his things. Connie gives Michael the shot. 

CONNIE Whenever I see that lake so cold, I think of poor Fredo, drowned. Lake Tahoe is very cold. They say if a person drowns in it, that the body will remain mid-suspended -- perfectly preserved. Some say it will remain forever. 

She finishes the shot, puts her things away. 

CONNIE Your boy will be right back. 

She leaves. 

VIEW ON MICHAEL Alone in the garden. 

OUR VIEW begins to MOVE CLOSER to him. We begin to HEAR MUSIC of the forties; happy music, swing music, as we move CLOSER to Michael. 

 

DISSOLVE TO: INT. OLD CORLEONE HOUSE - MED. VIEW - NIGHT 

SONNY CORLEONE, his arm wrapped around a smiling red-faced Carlo Rizzi, pulls him into the Corleone dining room. 

SONNY Hey, who knows my buddy Carlo Rizzi. Here... my brother Fredo, here's my Mom. Mom, whatcha got cooking? And Carlo, this is my kid sister Connie. Here, pull up a chair, Carlo is sitting next to Connie. Oh, the droopy kid over there is Mike. The college boy. 

An older, lanky man enters the room, his arms laden with presents. 

SONNY This is TESSIO. 

TESSIO Buon Natale, everybody. Buon Natale... (he smiles at Tom Hagen) Hi, Tom, how's every little thing? 

HAGEN (helping him with the presents) Wonderful, Sal. 

Now the study door opens, and DON CORLEONE enters. 

DON CORLEONE Is dinner ready? 

MOM Two minutes. 

The Don happily regards his family; his sons and daughters and even some Grandchildren. He raises a glass. 

DON CORLEONE A good life, a long life to all my children, and friends. To my grandchildren, and those that will be. To our family. 

They all drink. They refill glasses; then Tessio proposes a toast. 

TESSIO To our Godfather. 

They all drink. 

 

INT. THE DINING ROOM - MED. VIEW - NIGHT 

The family is happily at Christmas dinner. Don Corleone seated at the head of the table. 

SONNY What'd you think of those Japs, eh? The nerve of those Japs, coming right here in our own backyard dropping bombs! 

HAGEN Well, we could have expected it after the embargo. 

SONNY Hey! Expect it or not, those Japs don't have a right to drop bombs in our backyard. Whose side you on? 

MAMA Please, do we have to talk about the war at the table? On Christmas, much less. 

 

VIEW ON MICHAEL He has been listening to this discussion. 

MICHAEL Pop, I've decided I'm going to enlist. 

A quiet hush descends over the table, as though everyone knows the effect this will have on the old man. Sonny tries to make light of it. 

SONNY Kid, stay in college. The girls are cuter, if you know what I mean. 

HAGEN Pop had to pull a lot of strings to get you your deferment. 

MICHAEL I never asked for it; I don't want it. 

VIEW ON DON CORLEONE Disturbed; but wise and prudent. 

DON CORLEONE My son wants to talk about this, and so we'll talk, but not at the dinner table. 

He rises, and starts across the room toward his study. Then he looks back. 

DON CORLEONE Michael. 

He disappears into his study. Michael rises, glances around. People are generally tense over the situation. Michael follows his father into the study. 

 

INT. DON CORLEONE'S OLD STUDY - NIGHT 

The Don closes the door behind his son, and then moves across the room. He stops at the little bar there, and pours himself a brandy. 

DON CORLEONE Would you like some? 

MICHAEL No, Dad. 

DON CORLEONE Now what is this talk about joining the army? Eh? 

MICHAEL It's not talk; I'm doing it. 

DON CORLEONE You would risk your life for strangers? 

MICHAEL Not for strangers; for my country. 

DON CORLEONE Anyone not in your family, is a stranger. Believe me, when trouble comes, your country won't take care of you. 

MICHAEL That's how it was in the old world, Pop, but this is not Sicily. 

DON CORLEONE I know. I know, Michael. It's Christmas, your brothers and sister are all here -- we are happy. Let's not spoil this. Go your own way, but when you are ready, come to me the way a son should. I have hopes for you... 

CLOSE VIEW ON MICHAEL looking at his father with a mixture of great love, and also fear, and confusion. 

MICHAEL I won't be a man like you. 

 

DISSOLVE TO: EXT. THE TAHOE ESTATE - HIGH FULL VIEW - DAY 

The leaves are blowing. MUSIC comes up.

Michael and his young son, Anthony, walk through the grounds of the estate, talking about things we cannot hear.