DVD Review: THE DETECTIVE / (1968) Gordon Douglas
December 2nd, 2008 by Scott Marks
The Detective (1968)
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Written by Abby Mann from a novel by Roderick Thorp
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Ralph Meeker, Horace McMahon, Jack Klugman, Al Freeman, Jr., Robert Duvall, Jacqueline Bisset, William Windom, Tony Musante, Sugar Ray Robinson, Pat Henry, Joe Santos and George Plimpton
Running Time: 114 min.
Photographed by Joseph Biroc in 
and DeLuxe color
Rating: 
If Charles Bronson can pull the old Paul Kersey/Kimball switcheroo in the Death With series, I feel no remorse in referring to The Detective, bookended by Tony Rome and Lady in Cement, as part of the unofficial Gordon Douglas, Frank Sinatra policier trilogy.
Following the formula set forth in Rome, the films deliver a little social commentary, a little sex, deviant sex, gunplay, and Budweiser product placement all in the name of box office nirvana. Tony’s houseboat is dry docked and New York replaces Miami’s tropical locale. This go-round adds a love interest and more location work, but no more in-jokes (unless you count Jilly Rizzo as a bartender), snappy theme song or Mickey Mouse music. (Not surprisingly, Jerry Goldsmith supplied the trilogy’s most competent score.) As the title indicates, the character is no longer self employed. He’s a Detective Sergeant for New York’s finest. A Moss Mabry topcoat covers the smartly tailored plainclothes dick and little else. Joe Leland is Tony Rome East. Marvin H. Albert’s laid back gumshoe registers a shade darker when filtered through novelist Roderick Thorp and Stanley Kramer screenwriter (and Kojack creator) Abby Mann. Leland is a gritty, seen-it-all career cop disgusted by internal corruption. Gone is the galaxy of hot and cold running broads. This flatfoot’s love life is scorched by a flame he carries for his nympho ex, Karen (Lee Remick).
The film plows through the investigative material in an entertaining, if not particularly fresh manner. Everything grinds to a screeching halt whenever the lengthy boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-to-numerous-indiscriminate-sex-partners subplot kicks in. You can feel the flashbacks coming two reels away. They start with a blinding blast of glaucoma followed by a throbbing inner ear infection: Images zoom and blur while shrill audio effects invade the senses. Leland aggressively picks up Karen. Douglas’ idea of depicting intimacy is moving the camera in close and instructing his leads to talk directly into it. There are plenty of roomy, perfectly centered ‘Scope closeups within which the characters pitch woo. On date night, Joe spends the last act of a play grabbing a smoke outside. Karen’s friends assume the macho bull too dense to grasp the nuance, but not Joe who defends his argument by referencing O’Casey and Shaw. This ain’t no average flatfoot. He’s cultured! Lee Remick, who gives the film’s best performance, was always at her hottest when she appeared broken and self-loathing. (Make a pitcher of Brandy Alexander’s and watch the last reel of Days of Wine and Roses.) When Joe shows up to make nice with Karen, instead of packing candy and flowers, he brings an edict: “I came here to ball!” Frank and the boys put Ms. Remick to good use.
The Detective showcases more stereotypes than Tommy Roger’s Tenement Symphony. There’s the Cohens, represented by Officer Dave and Rachael Schoenstein (Jack Klugman and Rene Taylor), and Kelly played by Sugar Ray Robinson. A menorah on the Schoenstein’s mantle adds verisimilitude. Rachel pushes lox and bagels and the second Joe finds a set of doctored books, he takes them directly to the token Jew. Someone must have taken delight in casting a black man in the role of “Kelly.” Sugar Ray Robinson’s years as a Vegas greeter prepared him for the part: He spends most of his time on screen standing next to doors. Joe’s black partner Robbie (Al Freeman, Jr.) has a bit of the Fuhrer in him. He likes his suspects nude. When asked why the naked interrogations, Rob-O confessed it was a habit he picked up watching German newsreels.
Continue reading DVD Review: THE DETECTIVE / (1968) Gordon Douglas
Tags: abby mann, detective film, DVD Review, Film Review, Frank Sinatra, gordon douglas, Jack Klugman, Jacqueline Bisset, jilly rizzo, joseph biroc, lee remick, mia farrow, the detective, tony romeDVD Review: TONY ROME / Gordon Douglas (1967)
December 1st, 2008 by Scott Marks
Tony Rome (1967)
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Written by Richard L. Breen from a novel by Marvin H. Albert
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Richard Conte, Jill St. John, Simon Oakland, Gena Rowlands, Sue Lyon, Lloyd Bochner, Lloyd Gough and Jilly Rizzo as “Card Player”
Photographed by Joseph Biroc in and DeLuxe Color
Running Time: 110 min.
Rating:
Forgive my brief lapse of sequel dyslexia by reviewing Lady in Cement before Tony Rome.
The first voice you hear belongs to Frank Sinatra’s youngest and most successful daughter Nancy who lyrically cautions viewers that they had better lock up their daughters if they don’t want the character played by her father to get them. Nowhere near as homophobic or sexist as its sequels, Tony still begins with a zap zoom into a sexy butt, inexplicably match cut with a boxer’s behind. An hour later, Tony appears to have stepped into a reel of The Killing of Sister George.
Marvin H. Albert’s source material provides a Raymond Chandler-lite (The Little Sleep?) detective yarn perfectly suited for that season’s Sinatra vehicle. Tough monkey Tony quit the force and became a P.I. after his cop dad put a gun to his head and redecorated the apartment. Ralph Turpin, played by Robert J. Wilke, Written on the Wind’s bartender with a “hair trigger,” call his ex-partner to the hotel he now “dicks” at. Even though the dissolution of the partnership was acrimonious, Rome goes so far as accusing Turpin of getting his kicks hanging around schoolyards, Ralph stands behind upright Tony. He swears that “Georgia would sooner elect a colored governor” than Tony would rat out a source. Turpin calls in a favor and asks his old buddy to help cover for a rich dipsomaniac, Diana Pines (Sue Lyon), found passed out in one of the rooms. Diana eventually leads Rome to her wealthy adoptive family who before long all offer him $500 a day plus expenses to solve their personal mysteries. What entails involves the usual amount of dirty film noir secrets, stolen jewelry and, what else, homicide.
Tony lives on a houseboat and spends much of Lady in Cement dressed as a Miami beachcomber. Tony Rome’s Tony wears a dapper, man-tailored suit and cocked fedora that transform the Miami Beach gumshoe into something left over from the Songs for Swinging Lovers album cover.
Jill St. John takes ‘Rome’ by storm.
Continue reading DVD Review: TONY ROME / Gordon Douglas (1967)
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