Highly Overrated But Still Good

Absolutely Fantastic

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

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.

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.

TITLE: Lady in Cement was released in New York City on November 20, 1968. Lady In Cement is a 1968 detective film, directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Martin Gabel and Richard Conte. A sequel to the 1967 film Tony Rome, and based on the novel by Marvin H. Albert, Lady In Cement was released on November 20th 1968.Summary: It's a warm sunny day in Miami and Tony and a Buddy of his are on Tony's boat out in the middle of nowhere looking for treasure. Tony loses at poker so he's the one that has to put on the scuba diving gear and has to go in the water to look for the treasure. While diving off the Miami coast seeking one of the eleven fabled Spanish Galleons sunk in 1591, Private Investigator Tony Rome discovers a dead blonde, her feet encased in cement, at the bottom of the ocean. Rome reports this to Lieutenant Dave Santini (Richard Conte) and thinks little more of the incident until man-mountain Waldo Gronsky (Dan Blocker) hires him to find a missing woman, Sandra Lomax. Gronsky has little in the way of affluence, so allows Rome to pawn his watch to retain his services. After investigating the local hot spots and noticing a few names, Rome soon comes across Kit Forrester. Raquel Welch), Those party Sandra Lomax was supposed to have attended, although, Rome's talking to Forrester raises the ire of racketeer Al Munger (Martin Gabel) who looks after Kit's interests. Rome thinking there may be a connection between Lomax, Forrester and Munger, starts probing into their background, but with the omnipresent Gronski breathing down his neck, Rome find himself deep in a case that throws up very few answerQuestions: Who was the blonde-haired person in the water? Who was Kit Forrester? Who was Al Munger? What did Kit have to do with Al Munger? Why did Kit want to hire Tony? Where did Kit want him to go? MY THOUGHTS: As far as the movie goes, this was far better than the last picture that had Raquel Welch in it. I thought that Frank Sinatra was excellent playing the role of the Private Investigator. He was pushy when he had to be and yet smart enough to get at of jams. What can you say about Raquel Welch that hasn't been said already. So was fantastic playing the role of Kip Forrest. When she walks up the ladder out of the swimming pool in that ***** ****** it just made you want to melt. You can never get enough of Raquel and she played a lot bigger role in this film then in the last one, she was in. I give this movie 10 weasel stars for two reasons. The first is because the action in this movie keeps you on the edge of your sit trying to figure out how this movie is going to finish. The second reason and the main, because of Raquel Welch. Raquel brings out the best of any movie she's stars in with her body and she's a great actress.

If you can buy the idea that a balding, pudgy 50ish perpetually broke private eye who looks a bit like Frank Sinatra can still get the ladies, then the other logical shortcomings here are tolerable. Sinatra is a pro and gives an assured performance, but the rest of the movie is pretty routine 1960s vintage murder mystery stuff. A beautiful woman is found dead. The cops hassle the private eye to see what he knows. The private eye starts poking around and stirs up a hornet's nest of suspects and motives. That sort of thing. The style is perfunctory, and rather notably non-psychedelic for the mid-1960s, and there is nothing unusual about the storyline. This sort of hard boiled P.I. stuff was all over the place then. Still, the Florida setting is well used to create a look of decadent glamor and if you like this sort of thing, it's an okay time-passer.