Tony Rome (1967)

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.

Tony Rome is a former cop who now works as a private investigator in sunny Miami, where he lives on a boat. As the story begins he receives a call from a hotel; Diana Pines, the daughter of powerful businessman Rudy Kosterman, has turned up drunk and the management want her returned home without a scandal. It should be an easy two hundred bucks but sometime that night Diana's diamond pin has gone missing. She asks him to find it before her father finds out it has been lost but see isn't the only one looking for it; a group of heavies ambush Tony on his boat and then ransack it looking for the pin. That is only the start of the matter; Tony's partner is murdered in his office and later somebody takes a shot at Kosterman; clearly the case is about more than a missing piece of jewellery. As the case progresses Tony gets close to beautiful redhead Ann Archer who may have been involved with the man everybody is looking for.This film is almost fifty years old so it is inevitable that it looks a little dated at times but that isn't necessarily a bad thing; the violence is relatively bloodless, there is no strong swearing and raciest things get is seeing Jill St. John in a bikini and some go-go dancers in a bar. There is also the accidental comedy of seeing characters on the beach wearing suits! Frank Sinatra puts in a solid performance as eponymous hero Tony Rome; a likable character who has his flaws but not too many. He is ably supported by Jill St. John as Ann Archer; the two have some enjoyable scenes together as she flirts with him without anything actually happening. The rest of the supporting are pretty good too. The story contains a good central mystery and the actual motive for the events doesn't become obvious before it is formally revealed and when it is revealed it makes sense. There are also some comic moments along the way; every time Tony returns to his boat we hear his female neighbour encouraging somebody named Malcolm in what can only be a sexual manner… when we finally see Malcolm he can barely walk! Overall I found this to be a fun film; not dark enough to be Film Noir but it certainly features some of that genre's tropes.

Frank Sinatra is never the guy I think of when visualizing a private dick (when my brain isn't corrupted with Humphrey Bogart spatting out saucy lines it leans more toward pulp fiction heroes that dopplegäng John Payne), so I suppose we just have to go along with his Philip Marlowe mimicry in "Tony Rome", even if he isn't so quick to sneak in a one-liner and isn't the usual young guy looking for justice aged quicker due to pessimism and gin. Sinatra is never anything less than likable — he was one of the few singers who could act his ass off and convince us that no job could ever be too difficult to master — and "Tony Rome" thrives off of our inability to do anything but want him to win the battle that pits him against a bunch of glamorous two-faces. It's better than his other late-'60s Sam Spade imitation, "The Detective" (fearless but tiresome), and it's a lot more tolerable than his later career moments that attempted to disguise him as a young buck, when he, in fact, was a wizened old buck. It's breezy and shimmering, a neo-noir without all the hardcore grit of the other cop pieces of the era.In "Tony Rome", Sinatra's titular portrayal is put to good use as he investigates the bizarre behavior of a millionaire's daughter (Sue Lyon). Middle-aged, tired, and living on a houseboat, Rome has lived the life of a detective for decades, only succumbing to the tirelessness of it all in recent years. He's an ace at what he does — just don't expect him to get very involved with his clients. Because here, he has three: the daughter, who wants his help in solving her many predicaments, her father (Simon Oakland), and his chic wife (Gena Rowlands), who happens to be her distanced stepmother. Also involved in the story is Ann Archer (Jill St. John), a sultry divorcée with little purpose besides love interest fodder.Set in Miami Beach, "Tony Rome" has a feeling of boundless sexy heat, Rome's job always seeming romantically dangerous, as the thugs are always shady characters instead of people and the women are decorations made to disappear as soon as a potential sequel is announced. The film is nothing more than studio fluff meant to modernize the private detective noir era, with a bona fide star leading the way no less — but it's enjoyable. Sinatra suits the role, St. John providing him with a presence at once seductive and self- aware."Tony Rome" is much less imaginative than the darkened crime thrillers it so desperately tries to emulate, but it's agreeable and well acted — a cut above many films of the late-'60s, which was, no doubt, a shaky era. So I'm not just glad Nancy Sinatra sings the title tune like the star isn't her father; I'm also glad Frankie gets to put his blue-eyed appeal to good use.

If you want to go back to the "swingin' sixties" with a nod to 40's film noir this is your flick. Stylish, but already out of date is Tony Rome's nom de plume. Sinatra in a "vehicle" movie where it's his still formidable draw and the backdrop of a "cool" Miami is simply entertaining.A pre-cursor to the crusty not quite "over-the-hill" still cool private eye Tony Rome is a crime romp. Rome living close to the bone on a boat speaks volumes as to what this character is about. Since he couldn't quite fit into the department he's found his niche. And that niche is swinging with lovely ladies (Jill St. John is as good "window dressing" as ever captured on celluloid) and the grift that occurs between the have and have nots. With a pseudo complicated (i.e. simple) crime story Rome gets neck-deep in it as his ex-partner, now a lower-class hotel dick, pays his to return a socialite guest that passed out while missing. Complications and more than a few dead bodies ensue.Casting is excellent, the back-drop of Miami still in it's first hipster incarnation, and Sinatra all combine for a good time if not strapped on to a very compelling drama.