The Detective (1968)

So much average

As Good As It Gets

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Dated by its handling of the formerly taboo subject of homosexuality and further hampered by an overly sober script, nevertheless this Frank Sinatra neo-noir has a lot to commend itself.Adapted from a popular novel of the day by Abby Mann in a pre-Kojak assignment, it's difficult not to see Sinatra's Joe Leeming's battle-weary, incorruptible cop as a precursor to Mann's most famous invented character from the next decade. The plot too could have come from the TV show albeit with the utilisation of more adult themes, including the character of Sinatra's nymphomaniac wife (Lee Remick), the graphic depiction of the opening murder and execution of an innocent suspect, egged onto a false confession by a promotion-hungry Sinatra. This is one of the problems of the script, with Sinatra set up from the start as a down-to-earth workaday detective but with a social conscience of course. So Frank gets to soapbox a lot about the ghetto and poverty on the one hand and corruption and cover-ups in high places on the other. Sinatra manfully tries to carry off this heavy load on his own, but can't help but look awkward when cajoling the damning confession from his suspect or as if he's memorised some of his equally damning speeches against the powers that be. Credit him for taking on a modernist role at odds, I'd have said, with his family-entertainer background. There are a lot of big names in support, with Robert Duvall noteworthy as an over-zealous underling and Jack Klugman as Sinatra's trusted deputy. Sugar Ray Robinson has a fair old fight with his lines as an over-impressionable black colleague of Sinatra's, but I'm not sure I could award him the decision in the final reckoning. Smoothly and occasionally stylishly directed by Gordon Jenkins, the film is nonetheless stuck in a time-warp of its own creation and suffers accordingly, notwithstanding it generally has its heart in the right place.

I really didn't know what to expect from this film, except that Frank is going to be a detective and probably tough, with lots of girls around him. What I got was an intelligent and realistic look at the police dept. in the 60s probing into society's sexual differences in the death of a homosexual. It has a great cast, including Lee Remick, who's always great and who seems to be attracted to movies of this ilk, like Experiment in Terror and No Way to Treat a Lady. It makes good use of time and place, and its use of flashbacks comes off surprisingly well, to portray the courtship of Frank and Lee, which you don't expect in a movie with a violent subplot in it. (But which is the subplot?) But I did appreciate its time in telling his own personal life, rather than just centering on his case. And, he's not surrounded by girls. So, if you're looking for something flashy like Dean Martin's Matt Helm, this isn't for you. It's better; it's a mature film with real life consequences. (But, yes, there is a murder to solve and Frank does it in 60s style.)

In this film done one year before the Stonewall Riots we get a picture of corruption and homophobia in the NYPD. The Detective should be required viewing for those who want to know about the days before Stonewall when as a people we were subject to routine abuse and violence.A nude man is found murdered in his apartment which usually spells one thing, a homicide with gay overtones. Such an occurrence allows the police to be more brutal than usual all in the pursuit of a killer.Back in those days it's hard for people today to believe how bars that catered to gay people were the subject of random police raids, usually because the cops didn't get their payoffs. In those days just being in one of those places could constitute an arrest for disorderly conduct and if you touched a member of the same sex and not necessarily in a sexual way that could land you in jail for some time, unless you had the money to pay your way out.A man's been killed and suspicion falls on a street punk played by Tony Musante. Frank Sinatra plays a cop who has a specialty in extracting confessions and he does it the hard way, without the rubber hose. Miranda was new at the time, so they can't beat it out of Musante as per normal. Musante confesses he gets convicted and he gets the still operative electric chair.But right after Musante is killed, prominent citizen William Windom jumps to his death from the roof at Aqueduct racetrack. Sinatra is again the detective and connections are established with the two deaths. Sinatra's investigations are opening a lot of doors powerful folks just don't want opened. In this he has the support of Windom's widow Jacqueline Bisset.Sinatra's dealing with some personal problems at the same time. His marriage is breaking up because it turns out his wife, Lee Remick is a nymphomaniac. Still it's the story of the two gay related deaths that dominate the film.The Detective boasts one of Frank Sinatra's best latter film performances. Sinatra eschews the hipster mannerisms and delivers a straightforward performance as an honest Serpico like cop in the midst of big town corruption. In the supporting cast I liked Ralph Meeker as a sleazy cop on the take who's quite willing to stop Sinatra any way he can. Also Jack Klugman as Frank's honest sidekick and Renee Taylor as his wife.Forty years after The Detective came out who would have thought in 1968 that we would have something called the Gay Officers Action League among the police fraternal societies in New York and many other metropolitan police forces. Their organized presence in police departments have gone a long way in bringing a sensitivity and awareness for the GLBT community.And this review is dedicated to two out police officers now retired from the job that I knew and worked with in New York City when I was at Crime Victims Board. To Detectives Vanessa Ferro and Mark Caruso who are the finest of the finest in New York and to all the other out gay law enforcement officials.

Once again, Frank Sinatra takes a chance with subject matter that pushes the envelope. He's tough though it seems he kind of walks through it a bit as the detective trying to solve the case of a murdered homosexual. At the time voice-over narrative was probably considered too "old fashioned" to use, but I really think it would have helped this film.Still, I always enjoy seeing Frank the tough guy and he gets lots of support from a gregarious Jack Klugman and the unspeakably beautiful Lee Remick. Jaqueline Bisset is also in the mix as a woman who suspects her husband (William Windom) did not kill himself, but was murdered."Rockford Files" fans might appreciate one scene where Frank goes to talk to the press about the case of a accidental shooting by one officer (Tom Atkins). Among the reporters is Joe Santos, who played Sgt. Becker on "Rockford Files". Beckers boss was...Tom Atkins as Lt. Diehl.