Taglines: The action is so fast… it’s a wonder Tony Rome stays alive… and single!
Tony Rome (Frank Sinatra) is hired by his ex-partner on the police force Ralph Turpin, they are now both private dicks, to remove a drunk girl, Diana, from his hotel and keep the hotel’s name out of it. Tony takes the girl home for $200 where he meets the entire Kosterman family including her husband Donald Pines, and Ann Archer, a party guest from the previous night’s party.
Tony finds the ironically named Jules Langley and his thug aboard the boat Tony lives on, they are looking for a jeweled pin, but he is unaware of any such item, so they knock him out and tear up the place looking for it. The next day Diana shows up at Tony’s boat asking for the pin herself. Diana’s father Rudy Kosterman calls, interrupting the conversation, saying he is worried about her, she seems upset and has disappeared again. He hires Tony who agrees to help.
Tony then offers Diana to find her pin for a 10% finders fee. Figuring his old partner for the theft he offers Turpin $100 to send him the pin. They see someone casing the hotel and Tony gives chase but is blocked by a man with a limp. Diana shows up at Tony’s office early and when he doesn’t answer the door she leaves and he follows her to a rundown mansion where Adam and Lorna, Diana’s actual mother and stepdad thank her for the money she leaves them.
Later Turpin turns up dead at Tony’s office, although he got a shot off at his killer. Tony calls his friend Lt. Dave Santini from the police to investigate. Tony asks Mr. Kosterman to use his influence to get the police to back off while he investigates. Tony, who is running on little sleep arrives at Ann’s in the early morning to ask if the pin left with Diana that night. Ann continues to express interest in Tony, who falls asleep on her couch. Ann admits she was coming onto Diana’s husband the night Diana stormed off.
The pin shows up in the mail, apparently sent by Turpin before he was killed. Tony takes it to get it appraised and it is made of glass. Tony is sleeping in his office when someone comes in saying her pussy is scared and she wants to hire him to protect it, he turns down the case as Diana shows up asking if he found her pin yet. He asks who insures her jewelry. He takes the pin to several jewelers who might have traded out the diamonds for glass until he finds one who acts guilty. After he pretends to leave, he listens in to the panicked call the jeweler makes to Jules Langley the same guys who turned over his boat looking for the pin.
When Tony arrives, they have already killed the jeweler, drowned in the tub. Tony is next after they get the pin from him, but he manages to kill them instead. Another call to Lt. Santini to have him investigate the deaths. When Tony gets back home Diana is waiting, he drives her home where Tony and Mr. Kosterman talk over who could be involved, turns out he has heard the name Nimmo, one of the henchmen Langley hired, they met at a party when Ann brought him as a guest. Tony asks Ann where he may be, they go looking and find a stripper who grew up with Nimmo.
When Tony goes to question Kosterman about who has a motive, coming down to just his current wife, Kosterman storms off but gets shot in a drive-by just as Tony knocks him to the ground to protect him. In the hospital, Tony continues to investigate and finds the connection between Kosterman’s wife and the henchman Nimmo. Tony has the Lt. check in on Nimmo’s family to get a local address. After looking thru mug shots Tony finds Catleg, the guy with a limp, who shot Kosterman.
Tony Rome is a 1967 American neo-noir detective film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra, Jill St. John, Sue Lyon and Gena Rowlands. It was adapted from Marvin H. Albert’s novel Miami Mayhem. The story follows the adventures of Miami private investigator Tony Rome (Sinatra) in his quest to locate a missing diamond pin that belongs to a wealthy heiress.
A sequel, Lady in Cement, was made in 1968, again featuring Sinatra as Tony Rome, and co-starring Raquel Welch and Dan Blocker. Appearing in both films was Richard Conte as Miami police lieutenant Dave Santini. Both films are examples of a late-1960s neo-noir trend that revived and updated the hard-boiled detective and police dramas of the 1940s. Other films in this genre include The Detective (1968), which also starred Sinatra, as well as Point Blank (1967), Bullitt (1968), Madigan (1968) and Marlowe (1969).
Sinatra had originally been considered for the lead role as the tough private eye in Harper (1966), but lost out to Paul Newman. Tony Rome, The Detective and Lady in Cement were all directed by Gordon Douglas. The three films were packaged together in a DVD box set by 20th Century Fox in 2005. Douglas also directed Sinatra in Young at Heart (1954) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964).
Tony Rome (1967)
Directed by: Gordon Douglas
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Jill St. John, Richard Conte, Sue Lyon, Virginia Vincent, Gena Rowlands, Jeffrey Lynn, Joan Shawlee, Richard Krisher, Babe Hart, Elisabeth Fraser
Screenplay by: Richard L. Breen
Cinematography by: Joseph F. Biroc
Film Editing by: Robert L. Simpson
Costume Design by: Moss Mabry, Elinor Simmons, Malcolm Starr
Set Decoration by: Walter M. Scott, Warren Welch
Art Direction by: James Roth, Jack Martin Smith
Music by: Lee Hazlewood (title song), Billy May
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: November 10, 1967
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