User reviews

This too stars Frank Sinatra as a Miami detective trying to solve a twisting, turning murder case that begins when he discovers a nude corpse of a woman with cement shoes while scuba diving one day, and ends up encompassing several more murders, including one that is falsely pinned on him.

Sinatra seems slightly distracted in scenes in this film, as sometimes he seems invested in his world-weary role and sometimes he doesn't. Raquel Welsh is pretty good as one of the suspects, Lainie Kazan does well in a one scene part early on, while Bonanza's Dan Blocker, playing a heavy, cannot escape his claim to fame as the famous TV theme song plays in one scene in which he appears.

There is some good, hard-boiled noir style dialogue toward the end, but at other times, the film isn't very involving, and frankly given how shady many of the characters are, black and white would have fit this film better than bright color. But, then again, this was in changing times (several scenes and images in this film would not have passed muster even two years earlier), so probably they would not have tried it in black and white.

As far as a vintage detective thriller, "Lady in Cement" has enough wit and charm to make it memorable. It takes itself just seriously enough to get the job done. Sinatra's second turn as Rome doesn't quite have the bite of the first film but it's clear he's enjoying himself. The weary cynicism of Rome suits him well. The late Dan Blocker's delightful as Gronsky. The recent DVD reissue looks sharp and has plenty of trailers but is a bit light on extras.

Director Gordon Douglas ("In Like Flint") keeps the action moving and Raquel Welch looks terrific. Her first appearance is emerging from a swimming pool. I was a bit surprised to see nudity in a mainstream Hollywood feature in 1968 but, well, this was the late 60's after all.

Sinatra reprises his role of Tony Rome in this light weight murder mystery. Rome is hired by Dan Blocker to find out what happened to a young woman found dead in cement shoes. The movie is where the search takes him. Its more romp than real mystery with a light smart mouthed attitude hanging over everything. Its an enjoyable 93 minutes, certainly the laughs and the fun nature keep you watching, unfortunately you really do wish that there was some weight to the proceedings. The mystery has no real urgency and no real need to be solved other than it puts Rome in motion. Many of the actors, Sinatra included, seem to be walking through the film (and Raquel Welch seems unable to even do that). Of course then there is Dan Blocker as Gronsky, the man who hires Sinatra and who is much more trouble than he's worth. Blocker is a real joy to behold and if there is any real reason to see this film its him and his performance, its a blast. Mostly unremarkable, this film is still worth seeing for the mindless entertainment of it all. Recommended for those times when you want absolutely nothing to tax you brain.

To begin with, though it didn't do well at the box-office and is clearly inferior to its predecessor, this isn't that bad a sequel to TONY ROME (1967). The mystery this time around is more clear-cut because it starts off with a body (the titular figure); eventually, the hero (once again played by Frank Sinatra) himself is incriminated – leading to him falling out with his cop friend Richard Conte!

The female roles aren't as effective, however: Lainie Kazan makes a good impression as a go-go dancer but, despite her high billing, is restricted to just one sequence!; as for leading lady Raquel Welch, she's okay but no match for Jill St. John from the original (the script relies a bit too much on Welch's glamorous presence alone to carry the role) – and there isn't even that much chemistry between her and Sinatra! With this in mind, the star strikes up an unlikely alliance throughout with beefy and imposing Dan Blocker (from the Western TV series "Bonanza") – which gives a humorous vein to the generally hard-boiled proceedings and immediately reminds one of the Philip Marlowe/Moose Malloy partnership in MURDER, MY SWEET aka FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1944).

Again, most of the suspects in the case are unsavory characters – from former mobsters (now ostensibly leading a respectable life) to homosexuals (remnants perhaps from Sinatra's previous collaboration with director Douglas, THE DETECTIVE [1968]). Incidentally, while the mystery in the original led to an unexpected revelation, the clues here point to either Welch or Blocker but – predictably – the identity of the real culprit is much more obvious; for what it's worth, the script was co-written by Marvin H. Albert, who created the Tony Rome character in the first place on the written page!

Miami – in all its aspects – still acts as an alluring yet dangerous backdrop to the sex and violence going on; however, Rome even gets to fight the inhabitants of the ocean as a number of sharks are attracted to the 'lady in cement' in the opening sequence! Similarly, the bouncy score supplied by Hugo Montenegro emerges to be a definite plus. One final thing: apparently, Joe E. Lewis – the singer-turned-comedian played by none other than Sinatra in THE JOKER IS WILD (1957) – puts in an appearance here as himself!

Sinatra once again plays the Miami based private eye he originated in "Tony Rome" a year earlier. He was pretty effective the first time around, but that one didn't have a script as silly as the one he has to contend with here. Of course, scripts never meant much to Frankie, anyway. If the Chairman of the Board WAS bored, or just tired, he'd rip a few pages out of the script to keep things moving. When the movie was something like "Lady in Cement," it probably didn't matter, anyway. Besides, with a more stunning than ever Raquel Welch in the cast, I mean, who really cares?

Wherever Ol' Blue Eyes went, his entourage of goons and sycophants were sure to follow, and one such unfortunate, Pat Henry, a comedian of little talent, is along for the ride as Frank's buddy. Richard Conte, the fine actor from such interesting film noirs as "The Blue Gardenia" and "Cry of the City," shows up, as he often did in Sinatra films ("Ocean's 11," "Assault on a Queen") and provides the mostly mediocre film with his usual competence. The best performance, however, belongs to TV's "Hoss" (Dan Blocker).

Follow-up to 1967's "Tony Rome" is saddled with a tired, tangled plot concerning a murdered blonde in Florida and the investigation led by ultra laid-back private detective Tony Rome, who lives on a houseboat and discovered the girl's body while scuba-diving. Frank Sinatra returns to the role almost sheepishly; he isn't sleepwalking, exactly, but his interest in the scenario is blasé at best. Tracing the girl's killers to Miami high society (after Rome's buddy, police lieutenant Richard Conte, accuses Tony of the murder!), Sinatra is matched with hot stuff Raquel Welch as an alcoholic party girl (she makes her first appearance emerging from a swimming pool, bikini-clad of course). But Sinatra and Welch share few sparks in their scenes together--he's much more attentive to Lainie Kazan as a go-go dancer, and has more rapport with Dan Blocker as a mad Russian fond of twisting heads around. Adaptation of Marvin H. Albert's novel "The Lady in Cement" by Albert and Jack Guss, this mystery yarn is an absolute mess, unnecessarily crowded with suspects, heavies, gay stereotypes, brassy broads, hoods and junkies. By the time Sinatra's Rome lays out who-did-what-to-whom, interest has waned. Hugo Montenegro's bouncy score manages to keep things jazzy just up to the final reel. **1/2 from ****

It was at around this stage in his singing career that Frank Sinatra seemed to be trying to connect with the youth and get all hip and happening. Not only had he lately married the much younger Mia Farrow, but he would also soon take to recording pop songs by the charting groups of the day, like "Something" and "Mrs Robinson" usually adding his own rather silly ad-libs which sounded odd and uncool to most other ears. I mention this only because I'm trying to understand why he would allow himself to star in such a derivative, mildly offensive, run-of-the-mill movie like this and all I can think of is that he was looking across at the likes of Paul Newman or Sean Connery cutting a swathe through Tinseltown, with laconic, tough-guy parts in their Harper and Bond films and thought he could teach these younger upstarts a thing or two. Unfortunately the accidental outcome is more Matt Helm than anything else.

Personally I'd blame this embarrassing fiasco on director Gordon Douglas, who'd previously directed James Coburn in the spy-spoof Flint movies and while this follow-up to the previous year's "Tony Rome", reunites Sinatra with both the same character and Douglas as Director, this one really is beyond redemption.

Sinatra again plays private investigator Tony Rome who literally dives into another case in seedy downtown Miami where he coincidentally encounters under his boat the girl in the title, blond, naked and with her feet encased in cement, obviously very dead. Soon afterwards he encounters Dan Blocker, playing a big time crook, looking for his missing gal and before you can say "Bonanza!" Rome is rubbing up against a supposedly reformed big time crook, another girl dancer is dead and Raquel Welch has been paraded before us in a bikini. I think you get the drift.

It gets worse however as in later scenes we see Frank interviewing a plainclothes cop getting himself up in drag to pick up elderly men, then he crashes a life portrait class where the only line the naked blonde female model gets is "Can I go to the John?", throw in just about the least exciting car chase in movies and the obligatory leering close-ups of women bending over, to which even Welch isn't immune and a messy conclusion and you have yourself a seriously bad movie. Oh and now I've remembered Hugo Montenegro contributes an inescapably lousy, sub-Pearl and Dean soundtrack just for bad measure.

Frank of course was famous for preferring one-takes on set, but here you frequently get the impression he's only just read his dialogue before stepping in front of the camera. He naturally gets to smooch Welch too, otherwise what would be the point of her casting?

I've been trying to make allowances for the mistakes in this movie, after all it was the swinging sixties and camp was in for a time, but just like he won't be remembered musically for his interpretations of the Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel, he'll certainly not be remembered on screen for this mess.

While diving for sunken treasure a Miami private detective named "Tony Rome" (Frank Sinatra) discovers the nude body of a blonde woman with her feet encased in cement at the bottom of the ocean. After calling the Coast Guard he returns home only to find a large man by the name of "Waldo Gronski" (Dan Blocker) waiting for him. As it turns out, Waldo is looking for a certain woman and wants Tony to find a her for him. However, after taking the assignment Tony discovers that there is much more to this case than he was initially led to believe. Now rather than reveal any more let me just say that, although this was a decent crime-drama, it didn't quite rise up to the same level as its predecessor "Tony Rome" produced a year earlier. Even so it featured several good actors with Raquel Welch (as "Kit Forrest") and the aforementioned Frank Sinatra and Dan Blocker putting in nice performances throughout. Likewise, having Racquel Welch certainly certaintly didn't hurt the scenery in any way either. Be that as it may, this was a fairly enjoyable film and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Anonymous movie that I forgot almost immediately. When asked if this movie is bad, the answer is no but it's not worth it unless you are looking for something to occupy the time.

A few days ago, I watched Frank Sinatra's film "Tony Rome". Now just watched "Lady in Cement"--a sequel in which our incredibly relaxed and quite glib private detective hero investigates a VERY strange murder. When the film begins, Tony is scuba diving and discovers a body! But it's no ordinary body--it's a nude blonde whose feet were planted in cement! Obviously, the woman had been murdered--and disposed of in a very elaborate fashion. The trail leads to a gorgeous lady (Raquel Welch), a giant of a man (Dan Blocker) and an ex-mobster. Can Tony sort it all out and avoid getting himself killed?

I liked "Tony Rome" a lot and "Lady in Cement"--just not quite as much. It's a good film but occasionally the plot seems a bit convoluted and far less interesting than the characters themselves (particularly Sinatra). The music was also a bit too much after a while. It is also a LOT more sexually charged than the first film--earning an R-rating for nudity and strong language. But it also had a really nice underwater sequence, plenty of action and LOTS of smug comments from Tony. Worth seeing.

Frank Sinatra made two detective films in which he played the hip, Miami Beach private-eye Tony Rome.

Lady in Cement was filmed in the mid 60s when Miami Beach still had that hip-cool reputation. The movie takes place in the now gone Jilly's Nightclub which belong to Frank's pal, Jilly Rizzo. Other neat spots are the old mansion (now gone) of Panama dictator General Trijullio, the Fontenbleau Hotel and houseboat row(also a memory).

Dan Blocker steals the show as a 2nd rate hood named Bronski. Richard Conte gives his typical good performance, and Old Blue eyes shines in this type of hipster role. The biggest scene stealer is the ultra hot Raquel Welch. Raquel was in her prime and her swimming pool scene is steaming. The funny thing is that this bombshell could act. Look for South Florida "cult" legend Chris Robinson in a minor part as a gay funeral home director.....he's fantastic in his 3 minute part.

While Frank Sinatra's The Detective was a serious movie with an attempt at social values.

In Lady in Cement Sinatra goes back to glib wisecracks. It might me more adult for its time with some nudity but it also has rat pack type humour.

While diving off the Miami coast looking for sunken Spanish galleons. Private investigator Tony Rome (Frank Sinatra) finds a dead naked blonde woman with her feet encased in concrete and sharks circling round.

Rome reports it to the police and then is visited by Waldo Gronski (Dan Blocker.) He is a big man who wants Rome to find Sandra Lomax who is missing. Lomax was an exotic dancer, and another dancer who worked at the club is soon killed.

His search leads Rome to sexy Kit Forrest (Raquel Welch) who is looked after by a reformed gangster Al Mungar. Soon Rome is wanted for the murder of a nightclub owner.

Based on a novel, it is incoherent and messy. It has overbearing music, Sinatra does not seem to be taking it seriously and he is just full of quips.

Blocker is the best thing in it and in one scene he is watching Bonanza!

All the poor marks taken in to account......it's still fun to see Sinatra at his wisecracking best.....Tony Rome and Sinatra are gone and perhaps so are all those Runyonesque characters.In many ways like the music he left us.....even the below par efforts of his later years, there are a few similar films which kind of grow on you and certainly the Tony Rome films can be included. While its not "Some Came Running" or "Man with the Golden Arm" they do compare to the celebrated "Rat Pack" movies which seem to be getting a revival of sorts.Or perhaps it's just that absence makes the heart grow fonder....nice to remember there were guys like that around not too long ago.....like an older relative of mine recently said..."I sure miss those kind of guys".My guess is that as we get further and further away from the days of the rat pack we my become fonder and fonder of Tony Rome and Lady in Cement

The interesting thing about the Tony Rome character is that he's both a tough guy and a guy that doesn't want to have to be tough if he doesn't have to. Especially if the other guy is bigger than him or has a bigger gun. He'd rather keep the peace if possible. In this movie the other guy is much, much bigger than him. It's Dan Blocker, big as a mountain and mad as a wild bear. Frank knows better than to make him mad so he tries not to.

And of course we also have Raquel Welch. Raquel kind of outshines Frank in this movie. She's like a neon sign to 1960's beauty and sex appeal. And baby you can't turn that shine down. It's on all the time, bright as the sun. She's also in her 20's and Frank is getting into middle age. The screams of the bobby-socks girls have long faded away. But that's okay. That's the way life is. You get older and lose some of your sizzle.

I didn't like this one as much as the first one, Tony Rome (1967). So I'm not going to say this is better. But if you liked the first one you can check this one out too. That's what Frank would do.

The Lady in Cement is a veritable course on social anthropology of the late 60's. The writing, not the acting, is at center stage. Did I say - pure camp! Prepare to be offended if you are female or gay. Broad and dame are standard terms and gay baiting and bashing are represented for what they were in the day (camp- wise). Most of the lines are tossed off although there are wonderful performances by a very few outstanding character actors. The action scenes are mundane but it is fun to see Dan Blocker play a tough guy who likes bashing toughs. And Lanie Kazan and Racquel Welsh are at the voluptuous peak of their careers. Amazing to note they were both 28 years old and Mr. Sinatra was 53. The musical score, wait . . . was there a score? Well, you get the point. Watch it with friends who want a good laugh. it's full of them.

O.K., Tony doesn't die, but this film killed an otherwise promising franchise. While the original, Tony Rome, wasn't a monumental piece of film-making this one fell flat at the box office.

Lovable loser Tony Rome is back. He's still cool in his deadbeat style, but this time he's on a case that just doesn't gel. Revisiting the ingredients that made the original a fun romp falls flat this time as the story just hasn't got legs. It starts off startling enough with the underwater discovery of a nude (torso up) blonde on the bottom of the sea. The story could have gone any number of ways from here, but the direction it took - mobster gone straight and jealousy among lovers, including bashing gays, seems mis-placed to be kind.

The high points here include good turns by Raquel Welsh and Dan Blocher. As a character actor Blocher really lights up the screen. His presence is formidable and begs for more screen time. Raquel Welsh is fantastic window dressing, if not quite as effective as Jill St. John in Tony Rome. Sinatra is totally relaxed and rolling nicely with the character. Blame the writers and the screenplay because with the cool backdrop of Miami Beach and the straight man role reprised of homicide chief Richard Conti this could have extended Tony Rome into at least another two or three films. It didn't, however, and this is still worth a watch if not very compelling.

This must be a career low point for Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch and Richard Conte whose acting is uniformly cheesy and staged. With lots of additional bad acting from B movie extras and what is arguably the worst music track in film history (laughable, then annoying), it is not even a shadow of the ingenious, dark and powerful Film Noir of earlier decades. The skin diving scene with a Frank body double is particularly silly and laughable, but it actually takes itself seriously, rather than tongue in cheek. Other high points of hilarity: Raquel's giant hair and the go-go bar scene. This could be considered the Plan Nine from Outer Space of detective movies...

It's unfortunate that the genre of Privae Eye/Caper films is dead. Comtempary flicks of this ilk are vapid and weak compared to this flick and the reason is that the new stuff lacks in "coolness". Sinatra is 'cool'. Dan Blocker, Raquel Welch and Lainie Kazan are real actors not tabloid/celebrates making movies between their appearances on awards shows and Saturday Night Live. The dialog is hip and snappy. Their is no political correctness to be found. There is only the hardcore, survival instincts of people living on the underside of society. The set designs are intense in its detail and the world that is created by this filmmaker is believable despite its garishness. The array of different personalities have not be seen since Gordon Parks' Shaft and the rest of the Black Exploitation films. The person that has come close in recent history has been David Mamet (Heist, House of Games) and the adaptation of James McElroy's novel.

Film noir fans who are familiar with "Murder, My Sweet"(1944)directed by Edward Dmytryk, with Dick Powell and Claire Trevor can't help but see the similarities. Fun seeing Dan Blocker playing the Moose Malloy role (played in 1944 by Mike Mazurki). Guess they wanted a sequel to the first Tony Rome film and decided an updated version of a detective classic would fit the bill. This is as much a "period" piece as the original is to its time: Dick Powell and the whole flick personifying the 40's, Sinatra and Raquel Welch, et al, and the "funky" music and "edgy" references by Sinatra being a poster child for the free-lovin', hip 60's.

Raymond Chandler created a character in Philip Marlowe that has cast a long shadow and has spawned many weak and inferior imitations. Frank Sinatra's two films as private dick Tony Rome definitely fall into that category. To utilise Sinatra's 'hip' persona no doubt seemed a great idea at the time. The results however are absolutely dire. The first of the two is just about bearable but the sheer awfulness of this one beggars belief. Pedestrian direction by journeyman Gordon Douglas, moronic script and atrocious score. When a mobster played by Martin Gabel utters the immortal line: 'I run a legitimate business' one senses what sort of film this is going to be. Raquel Welch emerges from a swimming pool in a two-piece bikini but is far less interesting when fully clothed. A previous reviewer has referred to this dismal opus as 'junk but fun'. There is absolutely no fun whatsoever in watching junk, least of all when it features an artiste of Sinatra's calibre. Things didn't get any better for him and he followed this up with the equally risible 'Dirty Dingus Magee' which effectively killed off his film career. As Sinatra himself might have said:'Pitsville, baby'!

In this perfect representative of the 1960s, Tony Rome is back! Frank Sinatra reprises his role as the private detective who lives on a houseboat in Miami, with an endless supply of booze, broads, and one-liners. In the sequel, he discovers a naked woman while scuba diving—which would normally be great except for one tiny detail: her feet are encased in cement.

As Frankie and Richard Conte try to solve the murder, they get entangled in the sordid world of gangsters, strippers, and the alcoholic Raquel Welch who can't seem to remember anything about the night of the murder. As you'd expect, since this is a cheesy detective movie from 1968, there's lots of bikini-clad broads, naked broads, one-liners that will either make you chuckle or groan, fight scenes full of humor, and a musical score that couldn't have been more 60s if it tried. If that's not what you're looking for, you'll probably sigh and complain for 90 minutes, but if you liked Tony Rome, you'll love seeing Frankie do it all over again in Lady in Cement.