I enjoy watching 1960s films such as fluffy comedies in the vein of “The Glass Bottom Boat” with Doris Day (click here to read my review) or, say, teen-centric flicks such as “The Trouble with Angels” (click here to read my review) or “Beach Party” with Frankie and Annette (click here to read my review). However, I really like the Frank Sinatra caper efforts. All the above have more style and substance than any of the dreck oozing out of Hollywood these days. So, today I’m looking at Sinatra’s private eye flick “Tony Rome” and it’s worth watching. Check it out; it’s easy to find.
‘Tony Rome’
(1967; 110 minutes; not rated – see story for explantion; directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra, Jill St. John and Richard Conte)
ONE COOL CAT ON THE PROWL IN MIAMI
(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and trivia and the updating of links on Dec. 1, 2024.)
I’ve always liked Frank Sinatra caper films from the 1960s. From the first I saw – the original “Ocean’s 11” (click here to read my review) – to “Assault on a Queen,” in which there’s a very clever caper of robbing the Queen Mary ocean liner at sea (click here to read my review). They were fun, watchable and much better than you might believe. I didn’t see the somewhat noir detective film “Tony Rome” in its entirety until recently and it’s almost as good as the others. Almost.
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Playing the title character, Sinatra is a private eye in this noir light film. I write “light“ because I don’t believe “Tony Rome” is dark enough to compete as true noir with Mickey Spillane’s “Mike Hammer” in any number of films and certainly not dark enough for a film that simply oozes noir: “L.A. Confidential” – click here to read my review. It does have its dark moments with drinkers, dope pushers and assorted sleazeballs, but it’s not truly deep, or the darkest of noir.
What “Tony Rome” does have, though, is a lot going for it. It is not just ’60s fluff, a piece of what you might believe would be Sinatra then-pop movie making. It has an intelligent plot; good suspense; and while not a true whodunnit, it doesn’t telegraph all its best punches. “Tony Rome” also offers an excellent supporting cast after Ol’ Blue Eyes, including Jill St. John, Richard Conte, Simon Oakland and, impressively, a young(ish) Gena Rowlands, who you might not immediately recognize.
Here’s the story:
As a private eye in Miami, Sinatra is hired by a hotel manager to bring a woman home who has passed out in a room after a night of heavy drinking. The hotel doesn’t want to get in bad with the cops since the woman is the daughter of a politically powerful man. Sinatra then gets tangled up by being hired to investigate assorted things by just about every member of this completely dysfunctional family. Along the way he uncovers many secrets and crimes.
As a matter of course, he has to dodge thugs, robbers, killers and the advances of several ladies. He also discovers – and then has to solve – a mystery involving stolen diamonds. Whew! Don’t worry, it’s all in a day’s work for Sinatra and he even manages to get bets in with his bookie even at the police station.
But don’t be fooled by the fun and Miami backdrops circa 1960s as “Tony Rome” has some really neat scenes. All involve drama from the dark heart of society: A prostitute coming home and being castigated by her mother and questioned by Sinatra; and the other when Frank confronts a drug dealer as he tries to find someone. Both scenes, but especially the former, are very dramatic and worthy of accolades for all the actors involved.
Now for a look at some of the principal cast:
An Oscar winner and nominee (not for this one), Sinatra plays it cool and tough in the title role. His work is so smooth that it doesn’t appear much of a stretch to his acting talent to do this one. Of course, he was better as a singer, but Frank’s no slouch on screen. He knows how to convey a part and is very smooth and watchable on camera. He also did “Lady in Cement,” which is the sequel to “Tony Rome,” and I liked him even better in the police procedural “The First Deadly Sin.” Sinatra earned his supporting actor Oscar for the legendary “From Here to Eternity” (that classic film won a total of eight Oscars) and he was nominated for best actor in “The Man with the Golden Arm.” He also was presented honorary Oscars for humanitarian work and for “tolerance short subject” film in 1946. Frank left us in 1998 at 82 when he died of cancer and heart and kidney disease.- A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), St. John does a smooth turn as “Ann Archer,” a woman on the make and she oozes sexuality in most scenes. Although I like her much better in the 007 film “Diamonds are Forever” (click here to read my review), she does very good work with a variety of emotions in this one. I can’t say she does award-winning work here, but in “Tony Rome” she is certainly better here than 99-percent of female actors working in Hollywood today. St. John, who’s the wife of 27 years of Robert Wagner, was nominated for “Come Blow Your Horn” with Frank and “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone” with Warren Beatty and Vivien Leigh.
- One of my favorite TV actors over his career is Oakland and he is solid in this one as millionaire “Rudy Kosterman.” Just like so many others here, he does a smooth turn and projects his character well. Oakland was in one of my favorite TV films “The Night Stalker” from 1972 (click here to read my review) but he had great credentials from work in films such as “Psycho,” “West Side Story” and “Bullitt” with Steve McQueen (click here to read my review). Oakland had a busy career of 164 credits spanning five decades of work – many coming on TV in the ’60s – from the first in 1949 and he died the day after his 68th birthday in 1983 of cancer.
- The most underrated work in this one is done by two-time Oscar nominee (not for this one) Rowlands, who plays Oakland’s wife “Rita Kosterman.” She’s got a lot of secrets and a lot of strength to keep them. Rowlands shows more than a glimpse here of her strength as an actor that would earn her nominations in the little-remembered and totally outstanding crime drama “Gloria” and for “A Woman Under the Influence.” Rowlands died at 94 in August 2024 of complications from dementia.
- The weakest link in this whole thing is Conte as “Lt. Dave Santini.” I’m not sure why Sinatra likes Conte, but the two have been together in a number of films including “Ocean’s 11” and “Assault on a Queen.” Conte is stiff in his delivery, but he’s not an embarrassment – and I guess that’s a passing grade. Conte was much better as “Barzini” in “The Godfather” (it’s my No. 1 favorite film – click here for a look at my Top 10) and was also in “Call Northside 777.” He died at 65 in 1975 of a heart attack.
Others in the supporting cast do great work, but I’m not going to take the time to single them out much. Two of the best are Virginia Vincent, who plays “Sally Bullock,” and Lloyd Bochner, who plays drug dealer “Vic Rood.” Both handle their side well in some of the most dramatic encounters in the film and both are worth watching. Vincent was also in “The Hills Have Eyes” and fans of TV’s “Dragnet” and other shows with Jack Webb will remember her playing variety of roles on several series. She died at 95 in 2013. Bochner was in the laugh-fest sequel “The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear” and had a prolific 220 credits in a career spanning an incredible seven decades. He died of cancer at 81 in 2005.
My only criticism of “Tony Rome” is the ending. After spending much of the film taking his time, using detail and nuance to tell a nice story, director Gordon Douglas suddenly speeds up the process and the film comes to an unsatisfying end. Oh, everyone is happy (except the bad guys, of course) and Sinatra gets a big check for his work, but some of the key questions – such as settling the question of the diamonds – is nowhere to be found.
However, since the film never insults your intelligence (OK, there are a couple of scenes that are regretful today) and it appears as if someone with creativity wrote it, you can pass over the inherent weakness of the end. Besides, given the dreck being shoveled out today, “Tony Rome” would win a Nobel prize for literature compared the uninspired garbage being produced by Hollywood.
Since the film was released in 1967, there are some dated – and even one racist – line in the film. At one point, Oakland wonders who’s stealing from him and Sinatra tells him that he can’t blame Lyndon Johnson (the U.S. president at the time). As for the other, one character says the day anyone gets information from “Tony Rome” is “the day Georgia elects a (black) governor.” No, it isn’t that word, but one that’s reprehensible today but used openly back then. Of course, all the men are pretty much sexist, but you can’t find many progressive films from that era that were box office successes.
“Tony Rome” was outside the top 25 films for 1967 with $3.8 million at the box office, according to Wiki, and earned an additional $200,000 in Canada. The No. 1 film of the year was now iconic anti-establishment effort “The Graduate” (click here to read my review) with $104.9 million and coming in second was Disney’s animated feature “The Jungle Book” with $73.7 million. “Tony Rome” was the first film from ’67 that I’ve reviewed for this blog and the only other is “The Graduate.”
Oh, and as I noted in a previous review: Films were not rated in the mid-1960s with a PG, PG-13 or R designation. An antiquated system of approved or not approved by a censoring board was the soon-to-end standard of the day.
Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):
- Boxing legend Rocky Graziano has a small part here as “Packy.” He had 14 acting credits in his post-boxing career days and Graziano died in 1991 at 71 following a stroke.
- Graziano’s birth name was Thomas Rocco Barbella; Oakland’s birth name was Isidor Simon Weiss; St. John’s birth name is Jill Arlyn Oppenheim and her nickname is “Magic;” Conte’s birth name was Nicholas Peter Conte; and Vincent’s birth name was Virginia Ruth Grohosky.
- Filming took place on Miami Beach and Sinatra reportedly performed shows at night at a resort. Scenes were filmed both at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and the Corsair Hotel.
- Here’s one directly from Wiki: “Deanna Lund plays a lesbian stripper but, embarrassed by the role, she asked for her name to be removed from the credits. She also appears in the film’s poster.”
- Frank’s daughter Nancy Sinatra sings the title song. As a singer, Nancy is most famous for the hit song “These Boots are Made for Walkin.’”
- Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of a possible four-star review. Sounds about right (and I’m sure Roger wouldn’t have cared at all what I think about it).
- The supporting actor with the most intriguing name is Jilly Rizzo, who is uncredited as “Card Player.” Jilly, who was a restaurant owner, was a longtime friend of Sinatra and had eight film credits, including uncredited cameos in several Sinatra films.
- Finally and directly from IMDb.com’s terribly thin trivia page: “The character Tony Rome appeared in three novels by Marvin H. Albert in the early 1960s: ‘Miami Mayhem’ (filmed as Tony Rome (1967), ‘Lady in Cement’ and ‘My Kind of Game.’”
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