Tony Rome **** (1967, Frank Sinatra, Jill St John, Richard Conte, Gena Rowlands, Simon Oakland, Jeffrey Lynn, Sue Lyon, Lloyd Bochner, Robert J Wilke) – Classic Movie Review 3994

The sizzling 1967 neo-noir thriller film Tony Rome finds Frank Sinatra enjoying a classic hard-boiled detective role as tough Miami private investigator Tony Rome, an ex-cop who lives on a powerboat called Straight Pass.

Director Gordon M Douglas’s sizzling 1967 American neo-noir detective thriller film Tony Rome finds Frank Sinatra enjoying a classic hard-boiled Philip Marlowe-style private detective role as tough, footloose and fancy free Miami private investigator Tony Rome, an ex-cop who lives on a powerboat called Straight Pass. But we’ll let that go straight past. It is apparently an obscure reference to Tony’s gambling problem.

He is asked by his former partner Ralph Turpin (Robert J Wilke) to rescue a young woman. For $200, he takes drunken young Diana Pines (Sue Lyon) home to her father’s house after she passes out in a seedy hotel, and then has to track down her missing diamond pin. Lyon’s father, Rudi Kosterman (Simon Oakland), is the millionaire businessman who hires Rome to find the jewellery stolen from his daughter and replaced by a fake. Naturally, this gets Rome in conflict with local hoodlums and the Miami Beach Police Department in the form of Lieutenant Dave Santini (Richard Conte).

It is an excellent example of one of those thriller films with lots of rough stuff, a scenic tour of Miami vice and nice, and a twisting, cynical tale with some witty lines. And in the centre of it all is a cynical, weather-beaten, life-worn but deep down heart-of-gold hero. Sinatra is exactly right in his first private eye role, one that fits him like a glove.

Among the other good people keeping up the high level of attention are the lovely Jill St John as Ann Archer, Gena Rowlands as Lyon’s wicked stepmother Rita Kosterman, Jeffrey Lynn as Adam Boyd, Lloyd Bochner as Vic Rood and Robert J Wilke as Ralph Turpin.

Also in the cast are Virginia Vincent, Joan Shawlee, Richard Krisher, Lloyd Gough, Babe Hart, Elisabeth Fraser, Rocky Graziano, Shecky Greene, Jeanne Cooper, Harry Davis, Stanley Ross and Michael Romanoff.

It is made by talented people and it shows. Richard L Breen’s screenplay is based on Marvin H Albert’s novel Miami Mayhem. The score is by Billy May and the cinematography by Joseph F Biroc. It was very popular and Sinatra went on to make a sequel, Lady in Cement (1968) and a follow-up The Detective (1968), both also with Douglas as director. Douglas also directed Sinatra in Young at Heart (1954) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964).

The cast are Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome, Jill St. John as Ann Archer, Sue Lyon as Diana Pines, Gena Rowlands as Rita Kosterman, Simon Oakland as Rudy Kosterman, Richard Conte as Lt Dave Santini, Robert J Wilke as Ralph Turpin, Jeffrey Lynn as Boyd, Lloyd Bochner as Rood, Jeanne Cooper as Lorna, Shecky Greene as Catleg, Rocky Graziano as Packy, Virginia Vincent, Joan Shawlee, Richard Krisher, Lloyd Gough, Babe Hart, Elisabeth Fraser, Harry Davis, Stanley Ross, Michael Romanoff, and Deanna Lund a a lesbian stripper.

Deanna Lund said she was embarrassed by her role and asked for her name to be removed from the credits, though she appears in the film’s poster.

Tony Rome (1967, Frank Sinatra).

It was known as a very popular hit, and a sequel was ordered up, though 20th Century Fox said the film cost $3.5 million and needed to earn $6,875,000 in rentals to break even, but fell short at $4 million in the US and a global total of $6,250,000.

Tony Rome, The Detective and Lady in Cement were released in a DVD box set by 20th Century Fox in 2005.

It was shot in Miami, Florida, with daytime scenes at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, where Sinatra was performing in the evenings. Shooting also took place at the Corsair Hotel at 101 South Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, and on the property that novelist Douglas Fairbairn was then renting.

Sinatra’s daughter Nancy Sinatra sings the title track that appears on her album Nancy Sinatra, The Hit Years.

Sue Lyon in the 1967 film Tony Rome.

It runs 110 minutes.

It was released on 10 November 1967.

Sinatra was considered for the star role in Harper (1966) but Paul Newman won it. Other neo-noir classics of the era notably include The Detective (1968), Point Blank (1967), Bullitt (1968), Madigan (1968), Marlowe (1969), and Dirty Harry. It was a great period for these movies, renewing the hard-boiled detective and police thrillers of the 1940s.

Stanley Kubrick’s one-time Lolita back in 1962, Sue Lyon was 70 on 10 July 2016. She died in West Hollywood on 26 December 2019, aged 73, reported to have been in poor health for some time.

She won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Lolita but after Tony Rome and Evel Knievel (1971), she was relegated to mainly secondary roles, and her career was over by 1980, with her final film role in Alligator.

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