TONY ROME at the time of its release represented cutting edge "realism" that was disturbing, stimulating and refreshing. We don't see it as such now; but films in the 1960's were just beginning to bring sex more out in the open than had been before. As far as mass entertainment was concerned, sex was more suggested than shown in the previous history of movies. Think of the end of NORTH BY NORTHWEST. The culminating sex between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint was related by a visual of a speeding train running into a mountain tunnel. By the early 1960's, the James Bond movies were notorious for the "on screen sex". Only the hip went to see James Bond-the squares avoided them for fear of being labeled scum. Naturally, the "hip" numbers were never big enough to give James Bond movies the success they had-"someone" was watching them.
Nowadays movies such as DR. NO and GOLDFINGER seem innocent and almost naïve by today's standards. (I remember turning several shades of red with embarrassment when my step-father called up the local movie house manager and gave him hell after viewing ROSEMARY'S BABY there the night before.) The change was due in part to movies such as TONY ROME.
A good part of the scandal rested not only in the subject matter of TONY ROME; but also in the fact that Old Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra was blazing the trail. At first people just couldn't believe it. Sinatra was an icon of the established entertainment industry many thought should have upheld the more respectful standards. On the other hand, just as many thought that if it was OK with Frank then it was OK.
TONY ROME depicts a seedy crime story of dupes, connivers, small time crooks, pushers, hookers and blackmailers. Rome himself likes the ladies and the ladies seem to like him even more-several throw themselves at him in the course of the story but to their disappointment he is a bit choosey. (One gets the sense Rome has a great deal of experience in bedding the ladies-enough to know when some are just far more trouble than they are worth.) Tony Rome is a former cop who has seen it all who doesn't mind breaking the law for his own purposes-he is so immersed in the dirty world he works in that he is just this side of being on the "good guy" team. In this particular story, in the end he is protecting someone we normally would think deserves to be exposed and punished.
With the fact that he lives on a boat in the Miami harbor, readers of detective fiction will recognized Rome is loosed based on Dwight McDonald's Travis McGee character-an intelligent, world-weary detective who lives by his own code of right and wrong. But this is definitely Frank Sinatra's movie and so the comparisons evaporate pretty quickly. Although this was 1967 and the infamous "Summer of Love", there is little trace of the counterculture and the one scene that does exhibit it seems to be little more than an updating of a 1950's beatnik coffee house. (Brings to mind those old DRAGNET episodes where we are supposed to believe this clean-cut 30 year-old is a hippie because he's wearing sunglasses and love beads.) No this is a world Sinatra himself knew of: alcohol, bribes, showgirls, idle rich and shady petty thieves showing up as club and motel managers.
So just what is it that nearly got TONY ROME an "X" rating in 1967? Here is a short list:
*Close-ups of women's butts
*Attractive women talking candidly about guilt-free recreational sex.
*Unattractive whores who definitely do not have hearts of gold.
*A woman undressing in front of Rome and carrying out a major scene in her bra and panties.
*A seemingly mother-daughter relationship turning out to be a lesbian union complete with jealous violent arguments/lovemaking.
*Obvious jokes and one-liners about sex organs.
*An amoral approach to bigamy.
*A running joke of the amorous escapades of a newlywed couple further up the dock from Rome's boat.
Tame you say? Not for 1967. To have sex more out in the open rather than alluded to was electrifying. It is not that people didn't know about these things (Good heavens. Don't get all superior by thinking otherwise.) People did know about sex and the attitudes others had toward it and what they did. It just wasn't discussed or shown openly in polite company. Yes, it was a real part of everyday life. But, as one teacher put it to me, diarrhea is also a part of everyday life-but we don't show it either.
Well, those times are gone. TONY ROME itself stands in a long line of detective stories much like those of the 1930's and 1940's. I wouldn't call it film noir; but the elements are there. The action is lightened up with generous dashes of humor which disturbs purists of detective genre; but that's what makes it fun.
The fact that Sinatra himself was heavily rumored to have mob connections allowed him to credibly take the role as a "seen-it-all" P.I. Many complain that the character Sinatra portrays was not all that much different from himself-that it was all too easy for him. Personally, I start gazing at the ceiling every time actors wax poetic about their "craft". With very few exceptions, the character an actor portrays in one movie tends to resemble the one he plays in the next and then the next after that. I couldn't care less. The question is does it serve the story?
In this case it does. The detective genre has some pretty strict rules that make it fairly predictable in its form. The "mystery" (such as it may be) simply has to be unfolded as the plot moves along. (Take note that in the MALTESE FALCON we never do find out who murdered Bogart's partner.) The real enjoyment is: are we entertained by the characters? Do we enjoy how they play off each other? Is the world we are shown interesting? Are we delighted by what the main character says (or the way he says it)? Is his thinking interesting?
At this, TONY ROME succeeds. Rome may not be all that admirable-but we grow to like and sympathize with him. As one actor remarked about another film detective, we may not approve of some of his methods, but if we are ever in trouble, deep down we hope someone like this would care enough about us to take our side.
And he doesn't want to work that hard again. Never!
Kick back and watch Frank ruffle some feathers among the bad guys, and a few of the good ones in one of his favorite playgrounds (besides Vegas, Palm Springs, New York, Monte Carlo), Miami. Lots of nice scenery, particularly the feminine type, and lots of action with snappy comebacks. One note about the film's score by Billy May, where an earlier poster said it sounded like it was lifted from "Batman" in the 60's. You're half right. Right around this time, Billy May was doing the music for "The Green Hornet" series, and the music here is closer to that show, which was also produced by 20th Century Fox. Billy would later work on Batman's third season, replacing Nelson Riddle.
The DVD looks good, with lots of trailers of films I used to watch on the 4:30 movie after school (chopped to ribbons, of course). And what's wrong with "Fathom"?? For what it was, nothing that I could see.
Pleasing 60's mystery thriller
The first in two films featuring Sinatra as the title detective, "Tony Rome" is about as hardboiled as the 60's would allow with witty dialog and strong performances from a veteran cast. Sinatra's delightfully cynical performance as Rome and a couple of twisted performances by Gena Rowlands and Simon Oakland keep this film interesting. Rome is called in by his ex-partner to return the daughter of a wealthy businessman (Simon Oakland) found passed out in a seedy hotel room. When Rome's ex-partner is found dead and the girl's diamond pin is found missing, Rome finds himself hip deep in the middle of a new unwelcome mystery to solve. Rome meets and romances the wealthy and cynical Anne Archer (Jill St. John) and he must figure out if she figures in the mystery as well.
I detected no digital flaws. A very sharp, nice transfer "Tony Rome" looks really good on DVD with some minor analog flaws that crop up from time to time in the form of film splotches found, no doubt, on the original negative. The mono sound comes across with nice presence and the dialog is crisp and clear throughout.
We get trailers for a variety of Fox films from the 1960's. My favorite is for one horror of the 60's "Fathom" and a interesting formula western "Bandolero!" both featuring Raquel Welch. The latter film is memorable for Jimmy Stewart and Dean Martin who appear as brothers(!) in the film. There's also Raquel Welch in the "Fantastic Voyage" and other interesting trailers.
A solid, fun mystery with a memorable cynical performance by Sinatra, "Tony Rome" still packs a punch. It's a great 60's detective flick and overcomes its dated trappings with a smart, witty script.
Frank Sinatra's 1968 film The Detective was a serious attempt at a social statement sandwiched between the chairman's two lighthearted detective films Tony Rome and Lady in Cement. Directed by Gordon Douglas (who also directed the Tony Rome films), the plot centers around Detective Joe Leland (Sinatra) and his investigation of the murder of a prominent businessman's gay son. The film was notable at the time for openly depicting the gay community; however, it still falls back on the same tired stereotypes. Rounding out the cast is Lee Remick as Sinatra's nympho-wife, Robert Duvall as a violent homophobic cop, and Jack "the Klugster" Klugman as Sinatra's only honest ally on the force. Off screen, the film was notable for causing the irreparable rift between Sinatra... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Frank Sinatra - Lee Remick Director(s): Gordon Douglas DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Walker (Lee Marvin) strides through Los Angeles with the steel-eyed stare of a stone-cold killer, or perhaps a ghost. Betrayed by his wife and best friend, who gun him down point-blank and leave him for dead after a successful heist, Walker blasts his way up the criminal food chain in a quest for revenge. Did he survive the shooting or return from the grave, or is it all a dying dream? The question is left in the air in John Boorman's modern film noir, a brutal revenge thriller based on Richard Stark's novel The Hunter (remade by Brian Helgeland as Payback), set in the impersonal concrete and steel canyons of Los Angeles and eerily empty cells of Alcatraz. Walker kills without remorse, guided by shadowy "informant" Keenan Wynn, whose own agenda is carefully concealed, and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lee Marvin - Angie Dickinson Director(s): John Boorman DVD Release Date: Released the 05 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Claire Trevor - Laraine Day Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Frank Sinatra stars as Tom Reynolds, an American Army Captain who leads a group of allied forces combined with the native tribesmen in Burma to fight the Japanese in WWII. The movie is mix of war situations in the Burmese jungles coupled with a romance involving a foreign woman (Gina Lollobrigida) he meets while on leave in India. There are some good things about this movie and some bad things. By far the best thing is some nice color footage of remote areas in Southeast Asia. There are only a few battle scenes but they work effectively in this story. There are also some notable (and young) actors in this film including Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Dean Jones and Peter Lawford.
