Lady in Cement (1968)

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This film sees the return of Miami private investigator Tony Rome. As the story opens he is scuba diving at a site that a friend assures him is the final resting place of a number of Spanish galleons; he doesn't find and wrecks… just a naked blonde with her feet set in a concrete block! Soon afterwards he is hired by a large man named Waldo Gronsky to find a blonde named Sandra, who he assures him is not the one he found earlier. The last place Sandra was seen was the house of Kit Forrest, a wealthy and attractive young widow. She had been throwing a party but didn't recall if Sandra was actually there as she had been drinking. She doesn't really want to talk so calls her neighbour; retired gangster Al Mungar. His investigation takes him to a go-go club where the manager is murdered shortly afterwards leading to the police wanting to arrest Tony for murder! If he is to clear his name he will have to stay a step ahead of the police and solve the case he was paid for.Frank Sinatra returns for a second, and sadly final, time as Tony Rome. He does a fine job as this likable detective; cool but not too cool. The case is interesting and provides several potential suspects including Kit Forrest, Gronsky and Mungar as well as more victims. For the most part the movie still feels fresh with its bright Miami locations and cool '60s feel but in other ways it has dated; most notably portrayal and treatment of homosexual characters, including by the protagonist… something that almost certainly wouldn't be accepted in a modern film. The secondary cast are solid enough; Raquel Welch is fine as Kit Forrest, her introduction where she exits a pools wearing a bikini is certainly impressive! Unfortunately she isn't quite as good a female lead as Jill St.John was in the first 'Tony Rome' film; she was sexy but lacked a certain something. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting some '60s fun; if you liked the first Tony Rome film you should enjoy this too.

While playing tag with a pair of sharks Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome discovers the body of a woman with cement overshoes at the bottom of the ocean. As he says it was obvious someone did not want this body to be discovered. Which begins the tale of Sinatra's second Tony Rome film Lady In Cement.Sinatra as Rome is still living the good life on his boat and betting whatever he does earn on horses. He still has a good in with the Miami Police in the person of Richard Conte as Lieutenant Santini, but the in only goes so far as we see when Sinatra is framed for a murder and Conte has to go after his good friend. Of course in a rather long chase sequence toward the end of the film Frank does get the better of Conte and half the Miami PD. In order to appreciate Lady In Cement and Tony Rome you have to really dig Sinatra's whole hipster, Rat Pack shtick from the times. If you don't both films will leave you cold. But Lady In Cement was far worse in that Frank attacked the nascent gay liberation movement with a few well chosen imitation lisps mocking the gay characters in the film. After the Stonewall Rebellion a lot of establishment figures even in the entertainment world mocked the movement and Frank Sinatra was no exception. Interesting because in The Detective Sinatra played a detective who got a coerced confession of a gay suspect in the murder of a gay man and then when evidence showed New York had executed the wrong man took it upon himself to get justice applied rightly.A few in jokes for wannabe swingers abound in Lady In Cement, the strip club where the deceased woman worked was called Jilly's after Sinatra favorite eatery in New York. And at one point Frank remarks to leading lady Raquel Welch that he 'once knew a broad who collected bull fighters' a reference to former Mrs. Sinatra, Ava Gardner. I've got to wonder what Ava must have thought of that. Even more important how did Richard Deacon who was a closeted gay man and had a small part in the film must have felt about some of Sinatra's lines in the script?Still the smarmy lisps of mockery really have made Lady In Cement not wear well over the years. Definitely for die-hard Sinatra fans.

Even if this film does not measure up to the original "Tony Rome" film of 1967, this is still a very enjoyable romp fest nonetheless. I confess I am a Frank Sinatra fan, so seeing him chew up the Florida scenery is fun.And I admit that Dan Blocker as Gronsky is a delight to watch. His role is a real change of pace from his usual signature role of Hoss in "Bonanza," which we get to see playing on a TV! He, Raquel Welch and Richard Conte offer fine support.I was surprised at the nudity in the film, and even more so when Richard Deacon was present, but the scenes work well. Maybe the film is not a world beater, nor up to the level of the original, but it is well worth a watch. And hey, seeing Florida from 1968 is a real treat in itself!

Film noir fans who are familiar with "Murder, My Sweet"(1944)directed by Edward Dmytryk, with Dick Powell and Claire Trevor can't help but see the similarities. Fun seeing Dan Blocker playing the Moose Malloy role (played in 1944 by Mike Mazurki). Guess they wanted a sequel to the first Tony Rome film and decided an updated version of a detective classic would fit the bill. This is as much a "period" piece as the original is to its time: Dick Powell and the whole flick personifying the 40's, Sinatra and Raquel Welch, et al, and the "funky" music and "edgy" references by Sinatra being a poster child for the free-lovin', hip 60's.