Expected more

A lot of fun.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I see by the other user comments here that the majority of viewers seem to think that this movie is bad or mediocre. But personally, I thought that the movie was quite riveting almost all of the way through. Sinatra, in a comeback lead performance after a long absence (though it turned out this was his final lead role in a movie), is very good as a close-to-retirement police officer. He plays the role with appropriate weariness that shows his character has seen it all, but at the same time shows another side to his character, one that is dedicated to his job and wants to exit without any loose ends hanging. The heart of the movie - the mystery of a serial killer - is also well done. Now, I will admit that the mystery unfolds at a VERY slow pace, a reason that many people here cite in their disappointment with the movie. But while the investigation unfolded slowly, it felt realistic to me - most investigations by the police in real life unfold at a careful pace. Also, the slower pace made it very easy to understand the unfolding investigation - there are no confusing portions. Well, maybe there is one confusing part. I won't say what happens at the climax, except to say that Sinatra's ultimate action seems a little out of the blue and doesn't seem to fit what we've seen of his character before that moment. Though this surprise does prevent the end of the movie feeling like the endings of other police investigation movies. Give this movie a chance... though maybe wait until you are in a patient mood to fully appreciate it.

I saw someone else's user comments on this film and I can't believe that there were going to be series of films based on Frank Sinatra's character mainly because of the ending this film had. If you're thinking that gives the ending away, don't look for an obvious conclusion.To his credit, I guess Frank Sinatra did not want to end his film career with Dirty Dingus Magee. He wanted to end his film with the serious part, unfortunately The First Deadly Sin messes up the telling of a potentially good tale.Frank Sinatra is days away from his retirement as a Detective Sergeant and a strange murder has been assigned to him. A man apparently selected at random is killed with an unidentified weapon that is just driven into the top of his skull. A little good detective work and he finds their just might be a pattern of killings.It's all in identifying the weapon and it's an unusual one at that which I won't reveal. A professor in medieval history played by Martin Gabel helps with the hunt and later on he's joined by the widow of Sinatra's victim, Brenda Vaccaro to help with the hunt.They're helping because Sinatra's new captain is one total jerk played by Anthony Zerbe. Maybe I'm missing something in Zerbe's performance, but I would think that an ambitious guy like Zerbe plays would instead of pooh-poohing Sinatra's ideas would think that this guy if he is on to something with this serial killer business. And if he's right Zerbe will get all kinds of accolades for figuring this out in his precinct and even more if the doer is apprehended. It's an absolutely impossible role and poor Anthony Zerbe can't do much with it.All this while Frank's wife Faye Dunaway falls ill to a misdiagnosed kidney malady. She spends all her time in the hospital and Sinatra visits her at breaks in this case.Frank delivers a very good performance in a role similar to the one he had in The Detective. He's supported by the rest of the cast very well, except with Anthony Zerbe's impossible role. Besides who I've mentioned look for a really nice turn by Joe Spinell as the mendacious doorman where suspect David Dukes lives. His role is similarly undefined, we really never learn why he's doing these crimes.

I was a big mystery fan. Lawrence Sanders was one of the many authors I read, and The First Deadly Sin was a great book. But, like all good books, they usually don't translate well to the screen. This was no exception. The movie just didn't have the punch of the book. Frank Sinatra was getting old (this was his last starring role). Faye Dunaway's performance was so bad that she was nominated for a Razzie(Losing to Brooke Shields for The Blue Lagoon). He didn't have any lines, but this was Bruce Willis' first film.This movie would certainly have turned out differently if the first director had been able to stick around. Roman Polanski had been hired but was dropped when the scandal broke about his statutory rape charges.

This was seriously a depressing movie. The whole time, I was wondering "when will it lighten up?" It didn't. . I'm a big Sinatra fan, so I had high hopes.. The acting of the killer was fantastic. Sinatra played the part to perfection. In fact, all the actors did a great job. The plot was even interesting, and captivating at times. There's a museum curator in the movie who has the best personality ever.. BUT Watch out for this one if you don't like sad stories!