Lady in Cement *** (1968, Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Richard Conte, Martin Gabel, Lainie Kazan) – Classic Movie Review 3997

The enjoyable 1968 neo-noir mystery crime thriller film Lady in Cement stars Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, and Richard Conte. It’s a busy, cynical and raw private eye detective thriller with, for its day, big doses of sex and violence.

Richard Conte returns as Miami police detective Lieutenant Dave Santini, and there are also strong star supporting performances from Dan Blocker as the hoodlum Waldo Gronsky who hires Rome to find the girl’s killer, Raquel Welch as a beautiful alcoholic called Kit Forrest, Martin Gabel as a Mafia boss named Al Mungar, and Lainie Kazan as Maria Baretto.

Lady in Cement is a busy, cynical and raw private eye detective thriller in the Raymond Chandler vein, with colourful Florida settings, powerful, quirky acting, notable cinematography (Joseph F Biroc) and score (Hugo Montenegro),  and, for its day, big doses of sex and violence.

Also in the cast are Joe E Lewis as himself, Richard Deacon, Alex Stevens, Pat Henry, Steve Peck, Virginia Wood and Frank Raiter.

Tony Rome appeared in three novels by Marvin H Albert in the early Sixties: Miami Mayhem (filmed as Tony Rome), The Lady in Cement and My Kind of Game.

The in-jokes include: (1) Dan Blocker as Bronski is seen watching the TV show Bonanza, in which he starred as Hoss Cartwright. (2) Rome’s taxi has an advert for Sinatra’s fellow Rat Pack member Dean Martin’s restaurant on 79th Street Causeway. (3) Rome says he knew a girl that used to date bullfighters, a reference to Sinatra’s ex-wife Ava Gardner’s affair with a matador. (4) A band plays Sinatra’s song ‘You Make Me Feel So Young’.

After Tony Rome was a hit, producer Aaron Rosenberg hired Marvin Albert to adapt his 1961 novel The Lady in Cement for Sinatra, who then it after the similar The Detective. All three were directed by Gordon Douglas.

Filming started in March 1968 and Lady in Cement was released on 20 November1968. It cost $3.6 million and seemed to do well at the box office, but not well enough apparently. According to 20th Century Fox records, the film required $7,150,000 in rentals to break even, and by 11 December 1970, had taken $6,825,000, recording a loss. So Sinatra did not film Marvin H Albert’s third Tony Rome novel My Kind of Game.

Sammy Davis Jr was to have played the charter-boat captain but was replaced by Pat Henry.

Sinatra was performing at the Fontainebleau in Miami for six weeks before and during filming. Welch went to see him and felt he inspired her to continue performing to live audiences in her career.

Welch recalled she did not realise her character was an alcoholic until after filming. She said: ‘I’m watching this movie and I’m thinking “What the hell has she got on?” At one point, I had this epiphany: “Oh, she’s an alcoholic!” I didn’t know that. How could I miss that? I think I was just so enamoured with Frank Sinatra. He’s hypnotic.’

Conte previously supported Frank Sinatra in Assault on a Queen (1966).

Lady in Cement (1968, Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch).

The cast are Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome, Raquel Welch as Kit Forrest, Dan Blocker as Gronsky, Richard Conte as Lt. Santini, Martin Gabel as Al Mungar, Lainie Kazan as Maria Baretto, Pat Henry as Rubin, Richard Deacon as Arnie Sherwin, Alex Stevens as Shev, Joe E Lewis as himself, Pat Henry as charter-boat captain., Steve Peck, Virginia Wood and Frank Raiter.

It runs 94 minutes.

Lady In Cement was released on DVD on 24 May 2005 in a boxed set with Tony Rome and The Detective.

Raquel Welch died after a brief illness on 15 February 2023, at her home in Los Angeles, aged 82.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3997

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