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Matt Hough

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Tony Rome/Lady in Cement Blu-ray Review

tonyrometop.bmp


While his buddy Dean Martin was raking in the bucks doing a series of Matt Helm spy spoofs (and earning a spot in the top ten box-office stars for two straight years), Frank Sinatra tried a traditional detective mystery series with two films as Tony Rome, Marvin H. Albert’s private gumshoe from a trio of mystery novels.

[review]
Click here to read the original article.
 

Steve...O

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Thanks, Matt. This title and Theatre of Blood are in my TT cart now. Both will be blind buys. I will order when the ore-order for Eye of the Needle (a truly terrific film).
 

Capnvid

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To me, "Lady In Cement" has always been a comedy. While your points on extreme chauvinism and anti gay sentiment are accurate, the films pacing and comedic set ups make it a very entertaining time capsule of a late sixties period that was progressive, but also stubbornly backward in sexist terms. Unlike Tony Rome, I have never taken "Lady" seriously and find the performances, particularly by Dan Blocker and Martin Gabel, to be a very fun watch.
 

Will Krupp

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My grandfather LOVED mysteries, especially the hard-boiled private eye types, so we always watched these movies on TV together when I was little. I realize NOW that, perhaps, I was TOO little for some of these (I've told the story before as to how I couldn't figure out why the lady from "the Electric Company" was stripping on TV while we were watching Rita Moreno in MARLOWE but I digress) but it was the early 70's so what the hell. I probably WAS too little but I count the level of sophistication of my TV viewing at the time to my lifelong love of movies so it was a definite win in the long run.

Anyway, on to LADY IN CEMENT. This was one of those we watched together on what had to be it's first network TV airing. I remember NOTHING about the movie beyond the opening sequence. I don't know if my mother or grandmother ushered me out of the room, it was just unmemorable to me, or that I was so stricken by the opening that it seared into my brain above all else but I have no recollection of any of the rest of it, which doesn't really sound like I've missed much. That opening sequence, with the camera floating in and around the ghostly pale blonde at the bottom of the water, however, haunts me to this day. I had NO idea such a thing was possible, no idea that people could be so cruel to one and other, and I had nightmares about it for YEARS, lol. I haven't seen the movie since, but I can still see it in my mind's eye as clear as day and the thought of it STILL freaks me out today! Hahah, so that's all I can think about whenever this title come up. Maybe I'll try to give it a whirl at some point (just to see if I remember any of the rest of it) but it doesn't sound like it's worth going out of my way for. ;)
 

lark144

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Thanks, Will, for that great reminiscence. I was seventeen (& a huge fan of the film TONY ROME) when I saw LADY IN CEMENT at the Midway UA theater in Forest Hills in what I think was December 68, for I recall it was snowing. In those days, I was traveling on the subway every weekend with a copy of Cue (which listed all the movies playing in the five Boros of NYC) as my guide, trying to go to as many of the old showplaces (such as the Loew's KINGS & RKO ALBEE & especially the most amazing movie theater I had ever been inside, the Brooklyn FOX.) as I could, before those theaters were felled by the wrecking crane. Though the Midway is still standing, it was turned into a multiplex in the 80's. It was such an ornate and beautiful theater. II remember sitting in the balcony and that the seats were so plush and the sight lines were amazing. In fact, I remember a lot more about the interior of the Midway than I do about LADY IN CEMENT. Just like you, Will, I remember the sharks in the opening scene, and though it was certainly scary, I was a lot older than you were, so it didn't haunt my dreams. And though I know I sat through the whole movie, I don't remember anything about the rest of the film either. I think it's just that kind of a movie. And while LADY IN CEMENT is probably not worth going out of your way to see again, TONY ROME is one of Sinatra's best performances of the 1960's, as well as one of the best hard-boiled detective movies ever made, and, as Matt pointed out, also an amazing documentation and evocation of a Miami Beach and also of the Florida Keys that no longer exists, where everything looks undeveloped and bucolic. I remember there's one image where Sinatra is driving to key West and there's no buildings in sight, just sand and sea, an expanse that seems to extend into eternity. (and I haven't seen TONY ROME since it was released, and yet I remember most of the movie, whereas LADY IN CEMENT...)
 

Will Krupp

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Just like you, Will, I remember the sharks in the opening scene, and though it was certainly scary, I was a lot older than you were, so it didn't haunt my dreams.

Sharks??? See, I didn't even REMEMBER sharks until you just mentioned it! I was haunted by the idea of someone putting my feet in cement and throwing me in the water while I was still alive. It STILL gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it!

(thank God we never watched HARPER back in the day because I would probably still be obsessing about poor Julie Harris and that cigarette! :( )
 

lark144

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Sharks??? See, I didn't even REMEMBER sharks until you just mentioned it! I was haunted by the idea of someone putting my feet in cement and throwing me in the water while I was still alive. It STILL gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it!

Will, I remember sharks, but it's been 48 years since I saw LADY IN CEMENT, and it's possible that my unconscious decided to improve the film's mise en scene a bit. No doubt I'll find out for sure when I receive the Twilight Time Blu-Ray.

btw, Will, it's interesting that your grandfather loved movies and mysteries, for mine did as well. In fact, I still have my grandfather's collection of "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine." My grandfather's favorite film was OUT OF THE PAST. He also liked serious films. He started taking me to the movies when I was three, and I saw some that were probably a little over my head for a five or six year old, such as PICNIC & ELMER GANTRY, but I'm so glad I saw them was I was a child, because looking at them now, there's a feeling of warmth and familiarity that I probably wouldn't have if i was seeing them for the first time.
 

Will Krupp

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In fact, I still have my grandfather's collection of "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine."

Wow, my grandfather had a box of those, too! LOL. I don't have them but I'm sure my mother still does somewhere in her house.

Serious movie watching was with my grandmother more so than my grandfather. She was the one who introduced me to all the greats as a little tyke, starting with her favorite movie of all time, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY.

The sharks seem to be ringing a bell once you mentioned them, but for whatever reason they didn't scare me as much as fighting for life with cement shoes at the bottom of the bay!
 

Robin9

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The sharks seem to be ringing a bell once you mentioned them, but for whatever reason they didn't scare me as much as fighting for life with cement shoes at the bottom of the bay!

You must have been a very well brought-up child. Concentrating on cement or sharks and not even noticing the dead woman's superb breasts! :) For me, not a child then or now, her body is the one truly excellent element in this feeble film.
 

Will Krupp

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You must have been a very well brought-up child. Concentrating on cement or sharks and not even noticing the dead woman's superb breasts! :) For me, not a child then or now, her body is the one truly excellent element in this feeble film.

Well, there may be...and how do I put this delicately?....multiple reasons for that. I've often said that one look at Christopher Atkins in THE BLUE LAGOON made me irrevocably aware that I was, let's just say, "different" :) from other little boys. Maybe THAT'S why the breasts (of which I have no recollection) didn't "resonate" (shall we say?) OR......maybe they weren't there when I saw the movie. Remember, it was a network TV airing, so I can't imagine (in those pre-ROOTS days) that we would have seen them. I don't know how they would have worked it out and I've never seen a theatrical print so I have no idea how it was handled. I would think breasts on TV circa 1972-1973 (ish) would have been highly unusual.
 

Robin9

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Well, there may be...and how do I put this delicately?....multiple reasons for that. I've often said that one look at Christopher Atkins in THE BLUE LAGOON made me irrevocably aware that I was, let's just say, "different" :) from other little boys. Maybe THAT'S why the breasts (of which I have no recollection) didn't "resonate" (shall we say?) OR......maybe they weren't there when I saw the movie. Remember, it was a network TV airing, so I can't imagine (in those pre-ROOTS days) that we would have seen them. I don't know how they would have worked it out and I've never seen a theatrical print so I have no idea how it was handled. I would think breasts on TV circa 1972-1973 (ish) would have been highly unusual.

I've just been over to DVD Savant's web page and his review of the film includes one still. He obviously agrees with me!
 

Will Krupp

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I've just been over to DVD Savant's web page and his review of the film includes one still. He obviously agrees with me!

Congratulations (?) :mellow:

I highly doubt that shot was in the network print I saw. I can guarantee that even I would have remembered it if it was.
 
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atfree

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Congratulations (?) :mellow:

I highly doubt that shot was in the network print I saw. I can guarantee that even I would have remembered it if it was.
Not in the network version I saw either. I remember first seeing this shot when the film played on one of the pay-channels one time back in the 80's and was surprised because I had never seen the unedited version before.
 

B-ROLL

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Well, there may be...and how do I put this delicately?....multiple reasons for that. I've often said that one look at Christopher Atkins in THE BLUE LAGOON made me irrevocably aware that I was, let's just say, "different" :) from other little boys. Maybe THAT'S why the breasts (of which I have no recollection) didn't "resonate" (shall we say?) OR......maybe they weren't there when I saw the movie. Remember, it was a network TV airing, so I can't imagine (in those pre-ROOTS days) that we would have seen them. I don't know how they would have worked it out and I've never seen a theatrical print so I have no idea how it was handled. I would think breasts on TV circa 1972-1973 (ish) would have been highly unusual.
So my lighting Prof in college suggested we see The Blue Lagoon, that was currently playing in the theater, as he said there was a lighting instrument used it it that was invented in 1923(?) ...I seriously doubt it (because the DP Nestor Alemaendros used mostly natural light.

I will only say that (as she was under 18) Miss LazyBoy was shown with hair covering her upper frontals when she was on camera Mr. Atkins lower frontals and buttocks were in clear view on many occasions ... There some underwater sequences that showed an adult body double was used for Ms Shields when upper & lower frontals were shown ... Of course you would have all known this if you had the Twilight Time BLURAY of The Blue Lagoon as Ms Kirgo elucidates in the accompanying booklet ... Should you not already have a copy Screen Archives still has some available ... https://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/22925/THE-BLUE-LAGOON-1980/

Also of note they have these Frank Sinatra detective movies for sale on bluray as well ;)
 

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