THE DETECTIVE (1968)

Director: Gordon Douglas

Writers: Abby Mann adapting Roderick Thorp’s 1966 novel

Producer: Aaron Rosenberg

Cast: Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Ralph Meeker, William Windom, Jacqueline Bisset, Jack Klugman, Tony Musante, Robert Duvall, Al Freeman, Jr., Lloyd Bochner, Tom Atkins, Horace McMahon, Pat Henry, Patrick McVey, Dixie Marquis, Renée Taylor, James Inman, Sugar Ray Robinson, George Plimpton, Bette Midler (uncredited), Joe Santos (uncredited)

New York City police detective Sgt. Joe Leland (Frank Sinatra) is investigating the murder and mutilation of Teddy Leikman (James Inman). Since the victim was the son of a politically influential local businessman, the case attracts a lot of attention. Leland is prodded by his captain (Horace McMahon) and the media to solve the case quickly. Leland’s life becomes endangered as his investigation threatens to expose more than just the murderer.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

The Detective is the first flick this film junkie had seen starring Frank Sinatra. His performance really made me appreciate that he was more than just that famous singer for an older generation. Sinatra’s assured acting style really earned my respect. As a result, Ol’ Blue Eyes was finally on my radar, and I began to take notice of some of those standards of his that are the perfect musical complement to my martinis. One vice leads to another and another…

The Detective was a far cry from the Rat Pack-attitude-flaunting flicks that Frank Sinatra often starred in during the 1960s. This crime drama may be buoyed by the Sinatra presence but is anchored in plenty of heavy themes: individual and civic integrity; homosexuality; law enforcement prejudice, corruption and fascism; class division; and psychological issues causing relationship dysfunction.

In contrast to his free-and-easy mystery romps as Florida-based private eye Tony Rome (1967’s Tony Rome and 1968’s Lady in Cement), Frank Sinatra investigates Big Apple crime in this rather downbeat police procedural. The role of the tough, principled detective Joe Leland suits Sinatra’s chutzpah perfectly. Leland’s ethics and idealism are constantly offended by his coworkers and society. He even chastises himself at one point when he feels that he sought an easy solution to a case that enabled his promotion.

Lee Remick stars opposite Sinatra as his love interest, Karen Wagner. It is almost immediately established that Joe Leland and Karen Wagner are two people with very different backgrounds and temperaments. Despite their commitment to each other, their relationship is complicated by Karen’s ongoing psychological issues. Sinatra’s frequent director in the ’60s, Gordon Douglas, often shoots closeups of Sinatra and Remick looking directly into the camera as their characters are having intimate conversations with each other. One would think that this indicates a bond of direct honesty between this couple apart from the sordid world that Detective Leland deals with. However, these closeups often create a sense of confrontational uneasiness as we are not sure these two characters are truly compatible.

There are many other familiar faces cast as Sinatra’s fellow detectives. Jack Klugman plays Leland’s friend Dave Schoenstein. Ralph Meeker and Robert Duvall are absolutely thuggish as Curran and Nestor. Alan Freeman, Jr., as Leland’s new, young partner, Robbie Loughlin, provides a surprise that makes Leland confront his own ambition.

Tony Musante has a featured role as murder suspect Felix Tesla. He is one pathetic knot of psychotic misery.

In his very first film role, Tom Atkins plays the trigger-happy, young cop being grilled by Leland. Atkins would become a horror film favorite in the 1980s for his work in such films as The Fog (1980), Creepshow (1982), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), and Night of the Creeps (1986).

Jacqueline Bisset plays one of three important roles that don’t matter until over halfway through the film. Her Norma MacIver approaches Leland to investigate the apparent suicide of her husband. She also provides another potential love interest for Joe Leland.

Lloyd Bochner was a frequent guest-star on many ’60s and ’70s television series and appeared with Sinatra in the previous year’s Tony Rome film. Bochner provides his typically smooth and shifty presence as psychiatrist Dr. Roberts.

The character of Colin MacIver, Norma’s late husband, is played by William Windom, who appears only in a lengthy flashback. The ubiquitous Windom began performing on television in 1949 and never stopped. He also acted in an enormous number of movie and theater productions. Windom may be best known for his television roles as the unfortunate Commodore Matt Decker in the original Star Trek series (1966–69) episode “The Doomsday Machine” and for his recurring role as Dr. Seth Hazlitt on Murder, She Wrote (1984–96).

The Detective could have been an enormously significant movie in action film history. While it is more of a crime drama than an action thriller, it was probably Sinatra’s portrayal of a tough, idealistic police detective that resulted in him being offered the title role of that 1971 classic Dirty Harry. Of course, Sinatra passed on it, and Clint Eastwood became cinema’s most famous cop. Since The Detective film was based on Roderick Thorp’s novel, when his 1979 sequel novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, was adapted as the 1988 film Die Hard, Sinatra was offered the starring role. Again, Sinatra passed on a role that led to another hit action film series. The Joe Leland character was changed from a retired police detective to a younger, still-working police detective named John McClane played by Bruce Willis.

The Detective was released just months before the Motion Picture Association of America rating system began. It is a clear indication of the medium’s new direction using edgier, adult content reflecting the increasing turbulence of the times and questioning the merit in society’s classes and institutions. All the sordid compromises and resulting complications in an unethical society make the story’s murder and its solution seem to be almost beside the point. In this messy and compromised world, Sinatra’s Joe Leland weathers disappointments and eventually must change his tactics to keep making a difference. This film does not offer a tidy and triumphant climax but tells us that the good fight must continue to be waged and that ethics still matter.

LADY IN CEMENT (1968)

Director: Gordon Douglas

Writers: Marvin H. Albert and Jack Guss adapting Albert’s 1961 novel

Producer: Aaron Rosenberg

Cast: Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Richard Conte, Lainie Kazan, Martin Gabel, Steve Peck, Pat Henry, Richard Deacon, Christine Todd, Alex Stevens, Virginia Wood, Frank Raiter, Mac Robbins, Tommy Uhlar, Rey Baumel, Pauly Dash, Andy Jarrell, Peter Hock, (and uncredited cast members) Lanita Kent, Bunny Yeager, Charlene Mathies, Shirley Parker, Al Algiro, Robert ‘Buzz’ Henry, Joe E. Lewis, B.S. Pully, Jilly Rizzo, Chris Robinson, Maxie Rosenbloom, Coz Serrapere, Dick Sterling 

While scuba diving off the Miami, Florida coast, private detective Tony Rome (Frank Sinatra) discovers the naked corpse of a beautiful blonde (Christine Todd) on the ocean floor with her feet encased in a block of cement. Rome reports the bizarre discovery to the police and the autopsy determines that the unidentified woman died of a knife wound to the heart. Soon after this incident, a huge and intimidating man named Waldo Gronsky (Dan Blocker) hires Rome. For reasons he will not divulge, Gronsky wants Rome to find a woman named Sandra Lomax. Rome’s investigations soon have him mingling with go-go dancers, gangsters, and a beautiful boozing and gambling heiress named Kit Forrest (Raquel Welch). More people are found dead of knife wounds and Rome is implicated. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

Despite 1967’s Tony Rome supposedly being a dud at the box office, the sequel Lady in Cement was made the following year. Frank Sinatra returns to play the private eye, and this time around Marvin H. Albert, the original author of the Tony Rome detective novels, works on the screenplay. 

Again we have an approach to the material that is both adult and light-hearted. There is more grim and sleazy stuff going on, but there is always a flippant counterpoint delivered by Tony Rome and the other characters used to the cold, cruel world of Miami’s criminal environment. 

The underwater scene at the beginning of the picture is unusual and impressive. Christine Todd as a naked corpse has several sharks cruising around her as the scuba diving stuntman playing Tony Rome is swimming among them. The diver actually kicks away some of the sharks as they get too close for comfort. This is where the expertise of underwater sequence supervisor Riccou Browning came in handy. He had performed the swimming scenes as the monster in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and its sequels. Browning also supervised the teams of divers for the extensive underwater action in the James Bond epic Thunderball (1965). 

Aside from the eerie underwater opening, the rest of the film has an approach that is even lighter than its predecessor. It never spills over into spoof territory, but there is humor throughout. That light touch seems to also influence the look of the film. Nearly every scene takes place in broad daylight or brightly lit interiors. 

Despite an even lighter tone in this film, Sinatra’s dialogue isn’t quite as snappy this time around. But he still instills his Tony Rome with the easy confidence that makes him fun to watch. 

Some of Sinatra’s best scenes are those with Dan Blocker as Waldo Gronsky. Rome’s mysterious and hulking client is both menacing and likable. Blocker also brings a touch of humor to the role. Of course, Blocker was already famous as Hoss Cartwright in the long-running Western television series Bonanza (1959-73). Blocker had to take a hiatus from the series to appear in this film. 

A real stand out for this lecher is Lainie Kazan as voluptuous go-go dancer Maria Baretto. She is really good in the one brief scene she shares with Sinatra. You realize that her character is already a bit lit just trying to get through another night of shaking her money maker. Maria knows just how to play a customer for another drink and maybe for something more. I can’t believe it when Sinatra’s Tony Rome later remarks to the club’s manager, “She’s lousy.” I guess Rome is pissed that the magnificent Maria had him order her champagne. 

This film is probably remembered as much for ’60s sex symbol Raquel Welch as for Sinatra. Like Jill St. John from the previous film, Welch as Kit Forrest plays another glamorous potential love interest for our hero. Initially, Welch dazzles us with her bikinied beauty that compensates for her introduction that is stiff in more ways than one. Welch loosens up a bit as things go on, and I suppose that her early stilted manner could be due to her character not being immediately at ease with Tony Rome ogling her, yet she never appears self-conscious about what she flaunts. 

Tony Rome is pretty sure Kit Forrest is mixed up in this mystery, but he just does not know how. That creates a bit of friction between them and makes Tony Rome seem pretty high-handed. First he disses the delectable dancer Maria, and then his suspicious nature offends the gorgeous Kit. However, it does serve to remind us that Rome is in a dangerous profession and finds trust hard to come by, even with someone who slays a bikini like Kit. 

Like the previous Tony Rome flick, the mystery of Lady in Cement concludes in a humorous fashion and our gambling hero really hits the jackpot that he missed out on in the first movie. This is more male wish fulfillment fun and I wish that Sinatra’s Tony Rome could have continued to cruise through a few more cases.

TONY ROME (1967)

Director: Gordon Douglas

Writers: Richard L. Breen adapting Marvin H. Albert’s 1960 novel Miami Mayhem

Producer: Aaron Rosenberg

Cast: Frank Sinatra, Jill St. John, Richard Conte, Simon Oakland, Gena Rowlands, Sue Lyon, Robert J. Wilke, Lloyd Bochner, Jeffrey Lynn, Shecky Greene, Jeanne Cooper, Joan Shawlee, Virginia Vincent, Rocky Graziano, Richard Krisher, Lloyd Gough, Babe Hart, Templeton Fox, Elisabeth Fraser, Harry Davis, Stanley Ralph Ross, (and uncredited cast members) Deanna Lund, Rey Baumel, Tiffany Bolling, Sean Bersell, Joe E. Ross, Linda Dano, Robert ‘Buzz’ Henry, Levi Forte, Beau Jack, Norman Marlow, Jilly Rizzo, Michael Romanoff, Carl Starling 

Miami private detective Tony Rome (Frank Sinatra) is asked by his ex-partner Ralph Turpin (Robert J. Wilke) to bring home a girl (Sue Lyon) that is sleeping off a drunk at a seedy hotel. Turpin is the hotel’s house detective and does not want any bad publicity since the girl, Diana, is the daughter of local construction tycoon Rudolph Kosterman (Simon Oakland). After bringing Diana home, Rome is offered money by various Kosterman family members for different and conflicting concerns. Before long Rome is being accosted by thugs and bodies start turning up. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

While Dean Martin was showing 1960s America how he would handle being a secret agent in the Matt Helm films, fellow Rat Packer Frank Sinatra was making like a private eye. He would star as Tony Rome in two films adapting novels by the crime and adventure author Marvin H. Albert. The Tony Rome films were not genre spoofs like Dean Martin’s spy flicks, but they are still loaded with ’60s establishment male wish fulfillment and a sense of humor. Most of all, it is the Sinatra chutzpah that puts them over. 

The main appeal of the fictional private detective is individualism. Private eyes are their own bosses, and if they also are smart, brave, and tough, we can’t help but admire them. In the case of Tony Rome, he is further distinguished by living on the boat he won in a dice game in sunny Miami, Florida. Sinatra as Tony Rome certainly does it his way. 

Another aspect of private detectives that appeals to us is their recklessness. That risk-taking is something many of us are averse to, yet we envy the confidence that such characters have. Tony Rome is always just one case or bet away from being flush with cash or broke, yet he acts like he has the town in the palm of his hand. Everywhere he goes he is helping himself to people’s phones to ask favors and place bets. 

This guy is so busy chasing a buck that he doesn’t even have time to make it with two beauties putting the moves on him. Oh well, when you’ve got Sinatra-style charisma there’s always more to come… 

The story unfolds in a pretty leisurely manner and the plot gets twisty due to conflicting interests among the members of the Kosterman family. In keeping with the breezy manner of the film, the final reveal and resolution is almost anti-climactic. However, it suits the tone of the film and the unruffled confidence of the hero. 

Frank Sinatra is great in this. He fires off witticisms and judgments with the offhand directness that makes us envy and respect his character. His manner and dialogue is the reason to watch the film. If you are not a Sinatra fan, this is the fun sort of stuff that may win you over. 

Jill St. John’s character of Ann Archer really does not serve much purpose in the story beyond confirming what a chick magnet Sinatra — er — I mean Tony Rome —  is supposed to be. This promiscuous knockout becomes something of a running gag as she is practically throwing herself at Rome and he is always too busy to follow through to a carnal conclusion. However, she always takes it in stride as she has as much confidence as Tony Rome. Ann Archer looks great in a bikini and has the good sense to use vodka in her martinis. She’s quite a woman. 

Deanna Lund is also quite provocative in her role as a lesbian stripper that nonchalantly parades about in her underwear in front of Tony Rome. Lund had her name removed from the credits due to her discomfort with the role. Nevertheless, she is also featured in the sexy poster for the film. Lund is probably best known for her role of Valerie Ames Scott in the Land of the Giants ABC television sci-fi series (1968-70). 

In typical P.I. fashion, Tony Rome manages to take advantage of his friendship with a high-ranking member of local law enforcement. Richard Conte, as Lt. Dave Santini, is Rome’s Miami Police contact and exasperated friend. Rome also knows where the Santini family fridge is located when he needs to help himself to a cold one. Conte’s Lt. Santini would return in the sequel and have good reason to get even more pissed off at Rome. 

Gordon Douglas had already directed Frank Sinatra in 1964’s Robin and the 7 Hoods. In 1968 Douglas would continue directing Sinatra in the sequel Lady in Cement and a much grimmer police procedural called The Detective. 

Maybe Tony Rome’s gambling habit was catching. Tony Rome was supposed to have been a box-office failure, yet the sequel Lady in Cement was still made the following year. That second Tony Rome flick was also supposed to have been a money loser. Neither Tony Rome film seemed to score well with the critics, either. Was distributor 20th Century Fox betting that the Sinatra name would inevitably turn a profit for these pictures, or was there some bookkeeping chicanery afoot? Only Tony Rome could figure that one out.