Some recent Frank Sinatra DVD releases

[The Burgomaster]

I just bought the following recently-released Frank Sinatra DVDs:

* THE DETECTIVE (also starring Lee Remick, Jack Klugman, Tony Musante, Robert Duvall, William Windom, and a few other actors you might recognize).  This movie came out in the late 1960s, right around the time that movies were starting to become more daring.  Sinatra plays a police detective investigating the murder of a homosexual man.  The opening scene with Sinatra and some other detectives examining the body (the man had been bludgeoned to death and then his penis was cut off) is a bit surprising for a 1960s movie (even though the scene doesn't really show much).  The tone of the movie is mostly downbeat and dreary, with Sinatra trying to piece together the mystery as his marriage falls apart.  Don't expect wild car chases and lengthy gun battles . . . this movie is more of a character study and relies on dialogue and acting to keep the viewer interested.  Overall, it's one of Sinatra's best movies and best performances.

* TONY ROME - Haven't watched it yet, but I hope to get to it this weekend.

* LADY IN CEMENT - The sequel to TONY ROME.  Again, I hope to watch it this weekend.

[Yaddo 42]

Haven't seen "The Detective" or "Lady in Cement" yet, but I've heard nothing but good things about "The Detective", apparently the book it's based on is good as well.

"Tony Rome" is good for a some mild trashy laughs, in true hard boiled pulp style almost everyone in the film including Tony Rome is kind of grubby or crooked. Also from what I've read Sinatra was a huge stockholder in Budweiser at the time, hence the overt display of the Bud logos on the cans during the scene where he and Efram Zimbalist are drinking outside. The movie is like a slightly more serious and seedy cousin to the Matt Helm films of fellow Rat Packer Dean Martin.