DVD 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)
Tags: detective film, DVD Review, film noir, Film Review, Frank Sinatra, gordon douglas, jill st. john, lady in cement, marvin h. albert, tony rome, tony rome review