Tony Rome (1967)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The guy Sinatra is looking for throughout the film is named Nimmo. I just couldn't let that go by without comment. This is good light entertainment. Florida in the 1960's is not bad to look at. A few good laughs thrown in. All in all not a bad flick. Ms. Rowlands looked incredible. Almost Grace Kelly good looking. St. John was good. Conte was good. Simon Oakland did his usual great job. Oakland must have been working somewhere every day of the 60's and 70's. And Frank was Frank.

Frank Sinatra stars as an off-beat boat-living private eye who gets caught up in a convoluted plot which stars when the young daughter of a wealthy construction company boss passes out drunk at a hotel and gets an expensive piece of jewellery stolen from her. You'd hardly think that was enough to trigger a slew of murders but sure enough Sinatra's Tony Rome gets roped in and finds himself involved with beautiful women and gun-toting criminal types giving him plenty of time to display laconic humour and tough-guy smarts before solving the puzzle in the last ten minutes. So labyrinthine is the plot that you know someone's going to have to give a lengthy expositionary speech to join all the dots and sure enough that's what we get.Set in the sun-kissed but sleazy side of Miami, the movie shows its vintage with some crude sexism, the first and last shots indeed being of bikinied beach babies bending over as the camera zooms in a blatantly vulgar way likewise the references young hipsters of the day, portrayed as either frugging frenziedly to imitation beat music on the soundtrack or being sex-addicted like the young honeymooners in the boat next to Rome's.So far so bad, but on the positive, Sinatra breezes through the part with élan, almost matched for chutzpah by Jill St John's voracious Ann Archer character. There are some neatly acerbic lines too, but the story lacks bite and with clichéd characterisation (particularly its depiction of prostitutes, gays and junkies) and direction to match, it fails to reach the top echelon, although it must have done well enough in its day as it garnered a similar-quality follow-up "The Lady In Cement" the next year.

Long before Miami Vice which had hip cop Don Johnson living on a boat with an alligator in Miami Beach, you had Frank Sinatra as private eye Tony Rome doing the same.He's an ex-cop now a private eye who still has an inside with the police in the person of Richard Conte who's his former partner. Turns out he needs him when he takes the case of Sue Lyon who misplaced a diamond stickpin. Before the film ends Sinatra has himself all involved with every member of Lyon's family including wives and ex-wives, husbands and ex-husbands in a lovely blackmail scheme. Quite a number of people wind up dead including Sinatra's private eye partner Robert J. Wilkie. In the tradition of Sam Spade, though he might not have thought Wilkie the salt of the earth, it's an obligation to find out who shortened Wilkie's life span.Tony Rome is a Sinatra project through and through. Basically he just plays himself or at least shows the public persona that we know him for. Frank got parts in this for restaurant owner pallies, Mike Romanoff and Jilly Rizzo and one even for Rocky Graziano as a punch drunk old pug. There's even a part for Jill St. John as an amorous divorcée who you're never quite sure how she fits in the story. Jill and Frank were once a hot item, but this one was for old time sake.The problem with Tony Rome is you really do have to be a Sinatra fan to watch it. And I don't mean just of his singing, you have to be really into the whole rat pack scene. Otherwise Tony Rome and it's sequel Lady in Cement just ain't for you.

This is one of my favorite movies and even my son Nathan Connor (11) and Ryann (9) daughter will watch this. It was made circa 1967 and really is a good clean movie by todays (2006) standards. It has a lot of action and clean language throughout the movie. This is made before movies began to go into the extreme violence and explicit sex and language. I have watched this probably over 6 times trying to figure out the intricate or crazy plot. It is a lot of fun and can be seen by the entire family. Be sure to check this out! I felt this was better than Lady in Cement which was the sequel. I wish Frank would have made another one after Lady in Cement. I wonder why he just quit after two of these movies which were in competion to Matt Helms (Dean Martin)