Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome Times Two!

One wonders if Frank Sinatra regretted turning down the lead role in Harper (1966), one of the '60s best detective films. That might explain his decision to star in Tony Rome, another private eye picture, the following year. Although based on a novel by Marvin Albert, Tony Rome comes across as a Harper rip-off with the locale shifted from the West Coast to Miami.

Tony Rome is a former cop who likes gambling, women, and living on a boat. In need of cash, Tony accepts a job from his former partner to return an heiress, who has passed out in a cheap hotel, to her father. The young woman (Sue Lyon) and her wealthy patriarch (Simon Oakland) each hire Tony for different reasons: She wants Rome to recover a missing diamond pin that she was wearing; her father wants the private eye to find out why his daughter has been acting strangely. 

By the time Tony figures what's going on, he's been beaten up multiple times, accused of murder, and nearly killed himself. On the plus side, he has also met a beautiful, very rich divorcee (Jill St. John)!

Gena Rowlands.

Tony Rome is a lightweight mystery with a convoluted plot that doesn't bear close scrutiny. What the screenplay lacks in depth, it makes up for in snappy dialogue ("Miami Beach--twenty miles of sand looking for a city"). An added bonus is the on-location shooting which gives Tony Rome a different look and feel from the multitude of private eye pictures set in and around L.A. 

On the negative side, Tony Rome is sexist and includes at least one racist remark. It's one thing to have a male character leer at a scantily-dressed lady; it's another thing when the camera lingers--close up--on a woman's derriere. Then, there is the 52-year-old Sinatra who has to fight off beautiful women half his age. (Of course, Frank did date the much younger Jill St. John in real life....).

Jill St. John.

Sinatra brings an affable weariness to his performance as the titular detective. The role certainly doesn't require him to bring his "A" game (as he did on other 1960s films like The Manchurian Candidate and Von Ryan's Express). He and leading lady Jill St. John have a nice chemistry (no surprise there...see above); it's too bad that her character has little to do with the plot. 

Gena Rowlands stands out among the supporting cast, but she's barely in the movie. In fact, none of the female characters get much screen time and that includes Sue Lyon and an unbilled Deanna Lund  (according to Tom Lisanti's Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, the future Land of the Giants TV star was embarrassed with her performance and asked to have her name removed from the credits.)

Despite just middling box office success, Frank Sinatra returned as Tony Rome in the following year's Lady in Cement. The only other holdover from the first film was Richard Conte as Tony's police detective chum and sometime nemesis. 

The story gets underway quickly when Tony discovers the title corpse while scuba diving for sunken treasure. While the police try to identify the victim, an imposing thug named Gronsky (Dan Blocker) hires Tony to search for a missing go-go dancer named Sandra Lomax. Could she be the lady wearing cement shoes?

Dan Blocker.

While Tony Rome rates a notch about average, Lady in Cement is a perfunctory private eye picture. In the 1940s, it would have been considered a "B" film. Dan Blocker rises above his material, turning Gronsky into a likable--but still threatening--criminal. Along with Jill St. John, he appeared with Sinatra earlier in Come Blow Your Horn. It's a shame that Blocker, who found television fame on Bonanza, didn't have a a bigger movie career. He died in 1972 at age 43 due to complications following gall bladder surgery.

Raquel Welch and her tall hair.

Raquel Welch doesn't fare as well as Sinatra's leading lady. She plays a character very similar to the one portrayed by Jill St. John in Tony Rome. However, whereas St. John excelled at playing sexy, flirty socialites, Welch struggles to find a groove. Some of her scenes are downright awkward. She was much more effective in later films such as Hannie Caulder (1971) and Kansas City Bomber (1972).

Lady in Cement flopped at the box office and plans for a third Tony Rome film--to be titled My Kind of Love--were scuttled. If you plan to watch either film,  I do need to warn you about the music scores: Tony Rome kicks off with an atrocious theme song suny by Nancy Sinatra whereas Lady in Cement boasts one of the 1960s worst soundtracks courtesy of Hugo Montenegro.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker ... "The Ripper"

Darren McGavin as Kolchak

Certainly one of my favorite TV memories, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (hereafter Kolchak) is one of television’s best-remembered and influential detective series. However, it lasted only 20 episodes. Based on a novel by Jeff Rice titled The Kolchak Papers, the TV rights to the story were acquired by ABC before the book was even published. A pilot special was adapted from the novel by Richard Matheson, a marvelous writer of science fiction and thriller stories, as well as one of The Twilight Zone’s most prolific writers. The pilot was released in 1972 as The Night Stalker, and garnered good ratings. In 1973, a second pilot was written by Matheson, The Night Strangler, also well-received by TV audiences. So in 1974, ABC put Kolchak in its Friday night lineup in the 10:00 slot.


Simon Oakland as Vincenzo

Produced by Dan Curtis (of soap opera Dark Shadows fame), Kolchak was considered a risk, certainly completely different than detective stories before it. Carl Kolchak was played by Darren McGavin, best known now as everybody’s favorite holiday Dad in A Christmas Story. Kolchak was not actually a detective, but a newspaperman who worked for Chicago’s Independent News Service. Kolchak would have to work for an independent service because he was anything but a company man. Aggressive, fast-talking, dark-humored, ready with an insult and intolerant of stupidity, Kolchak was the perfect reporter. He drove a yellow mustang convertible (which today would be a coveted item!), and always dressed in a rumpled light blue suit, battered hat and well-worn tennis shoes. And to boot, when Kolchak ran down a story, it always turned out to be something supernatural, from werewolves to vampires, from aliens to the subject of this article, Jack the Ripper. His long-suffering and frustrated boss Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) gave Kolchak rather free rein for his eccentric behavior and wild ideas, but Vincenzo did a lot of shouting when his star reporter ignored his orders and finagled his way out of the office on a chase for the story.


Jack Grinnage as "Uptight"

Other members of the staff included Ron Updyke (Jack Grinnage), not Kolchak’s favorite co-worker. Updyke’s newspaper experience consisted of writing for financial pages, and Kolchak never passed up an opportunity to show his disdain for the nervous little guy, usually referring to him as “Uptight.” Another staff member was sweet, elderly Miss Emily Cowles (Ruth McDevitt) who answered letters for the advice for the lovelorn column. Other regular characters were introduced in later shows: Captain “Mad Dog” Siska (Keenan Wynn); the “Ghoul”, a helpful morgue attendant (John Fiedler Gordy); and rich intern Monique (Carol Ann Susi). Regular appearances were made by Carol Lynley, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins, Elisha Cook, Jr., Margaret Hamilton and John Carradine. Quite an impressive list of actors. Kolchak was the success of the season, and a great many popular actors appeared in roles or cameos, including Phil Silvers, Scatman Crothers, Hans Conreid, Mary Wickes, Dwayne Hickman and Jim Backus.

Kolchak and Vincenzo as usual

The introductory episode of Kolchak is also my favorite – The Ripper. Only Vincenzo and Updyke were in evidence as INS staff. Actually, Miss Emily did appear, but at this point was not yet a regular. Narrated by McGavin in a style of which Mickey Spillane would be proud, the story begins as Kolchak is being punished by Vincenzo for a previous assignment in which he angered the police commissioner. He is being forced to answer the letters for Miss Emily’s column while she is on vacation. You can probably imagine his reaction to the letters from the lovelorn and his abrupt answers, to say the least. However, women are being murdered and mutilated, and Kolchak is not about to let that kind of a story get by him. He manages to go out on the prowl, putting himself in all kinds of dangerous situations, including a funny scene in a massage parlor. After one murder, the killer is seen on a rooftop and police are chasing and shooting at him. Kolchak arrives in time to see the killer leap from the tall building, land without a scratch, and fight his way through the tactical force in a hail of bullets, escaping into the darkness. As he discovers more about the killer, Kolchak becomes convinced that he is not just a Ripper copycat, but the actual Jack the Ripper who killed 5 women in 1888 London.

Ruth McDevitt

Beatrice Colen as Jane Plumb

One of Kolchak’s eyewitnesses, at least to the Ripper’s appearance and possible residence, turns out to be one of the the letter-writers to Miss Emily’s column. The lady is played by Ruth McDevitt, a wonderful character actress who must have made such an impression she was hired to be a regular. A reporter from a competing newspaper, Jane Plumb (Beatrice Colen), is also out for the story. She is a sweet, naïve lady who has received a letter from the Ripper, and believes she can meet with him for an exclusive. Kolchak does not find out until too late about her plan to meet the Ripper. Not only is it sad, but also a lost opportunity for an interesting regular on the show.  Colen would have been the perfect foil for Kolchak's curmudgeonly character.  He then goes to the house reported by the elderly lady as the home of the killer, and comes face to face with the Ripper.

Mickey Gilbert as the Ripper
Mute but menacing

The opening music and credits for Kolchak were memorable.  Composer Gil Melle, also responsible for the music of Night Gallery, wrote the theme.  Kolchak enters the empty office at night, whistles a tune (which he also does through the show), the music begins as a pleasant little tune, then turns darker. Kolchak seats himself at his typewriter, begins to write, the music becomes more sinister, the room darkens, he looks to the side anxiously, and the frame freezes. I found the opening on Youtube, and present it for you here.

Many factors combined to make Kolchak a short-lived series. The main problems were office politics, behind the scenes squabbling over production credits, and McGavin’s increasing disappointment with the progress of the series. He called it “Monster of the Week”, and when the ratings finally dipped, he was able to be released from his contract. I think McGavin had a good point. There is only so much you can do with a limited story type until it gets repetitive and loses the element of surprise.  (A current television series, House, has been called “Disease of the Week”, but it has managed to stay interesting because of great ensemble acting and several side-stories unrelated to the medical issues.)  It is really a shame that Kolchak could not be developed further.  The character was unique, the writing excellent, and it would have been just as good without monsters.  Unfortunately, once it started out that way, there was no turning back.

Despite its short run, Kolchak is well-remembered by many viewers. It was even the major inspiration for X-Files creator Chris Carter. He stated that besides his own creative ideas, it was not Spielberg’s movies or The Twilight Zone that inspired him, but Kolchak, particularly because he admired Richard Matheson's work on the show. Not a bad legacy for a brief but unique television series.