cult film freak: FRANK SINATRA RETURNS AS TONY ROME IN 'LADY IN CEMENT'

Written by James M. Tate / 12/14/2024 / No comments / action , dan blocker , frank sinatra , gumshoe , lainie kazan , mystery , neo noir , raquel welch , richard conte , sixties

FRANK SINATRA RETURNS AS TONY ROME IN 'LADY IN CEMENT'

12/14/2024 | No comment

In LADY IN CEMENT Year: 1967 Rating: **1/2

In the sequel to the neo-noir TONY ROME, with Frank Sinatra in the lead role during the colorful late 1960's... while deep sea diving he literally sees the LADY IN CEMENT at the bottom of the ocean...

Her naked, otherwise model-looking corpse surrounded by guardian sharks as otherwise capable director Gordon Douglas, who filmed several of Frank's crime/heist vehicles, doesn't get a lot of tension out of what should be an extremely suspenseful situation: as Rome merely brushes off each shark as if they were nothing...

Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch ala LAURA in LADY IN CEMENT

The rest of the private-eye flick occurring above ground with the usual simple plot turning into a complicated maze: of finding out if that was really the girlfriend Dan Blocker wants him to find...

With Sinatra location-hopping from seedy nightclubs (including stripper Lainie Kazan) to his yacht's dockside to police stations and various crime-clued apartments, either getting beat up or beating up woodwork goons in what's more lightweight than the original's attempt to insert Sinatra's playboy persona into the contrasting hippie era...

Frank Sinatra and Richard Conte in LADY IN CEMENT

In that, Frank's Tony Rome traipses the crime-ridden counter-culture quite naturally, alongside either manly brute Blocker, token cop Richard Conte or bombshell love-interest Raquel Welch...

Replacing a far more game Jill St. John, Welch is as pretty as Tony's breezy-cool: surrounded by the balmy Florida locations in a somewhat plodding yet still partially entertaining investigation that goes in one ear, out of the other... for both the PI and the audience.

Lainie Kazan from LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch in LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra in LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra and Dan Blocker in LADY IN CEMENT

Richard Conte with Frank Sinatra and Dan Blocker in LADY IN CEMENT

Twilight Time double-feature of LADY IN CEMENT

Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time in Holywood's LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch in LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra and Dan Blocker in LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra and Richard Conte in LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra and Dan Blocker in LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra and Richard Conte in LADY IN CEMENT

Raquel Welch in LADY IN CEMENT

Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch in LADY IN CEMENT

Sharks from LADY IN CEMENT

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Tags : action , dan blocker , frank sinatra , gumshoe , lainie kazan , mystery , neo noir , raquel welch , richard conte , sixties

James M. Tate

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