The Detective (Gordon Douglas, 1968)

Another collaboration of Gordon Douglas and Frank Sinatra made right after Tone Rome. But instead of cynical PI, Franky boy this time around plays honest and tough as nails police inspector. Which is premise unreal enough to kill the movie before it even takes off. They should just cast Lee Marvin or Steve "The Bullit" McQueen and maybe save the whole thing.

But probably not. It's just not intense enough. Seemed to me like director couldn't decide whether to shoot hard-boiled crime or character study drama. It starts with violent killing of some wealthy gay and soon all the cliches (sex, drugs, politics, dirty cops etc) are thrown into the pot. Which is not bad, problem is that Sinatra starts to have these moral dilemmas (+personal dramas) instead of trying to solve all this mess. Not to mention it runs for almost 2 fucking hours...

I don't know, it was probably a bit daring at the time when it came out but it didn't pass the test of time very well. It certainly left me pretty cold and bored for most of the time. But at least in the second part Jacqueline Bisset appears and lights those few scenes she's in it. And it was funny to watch great lover Mr. blue eyes Sinatra struggling with a fact that his wife is nymphomaniac. I bet his agent was thrilled when he accepted this role.

5/10