Lady in Cement

"A beautiful body under water. A private eye in over his head."

1968 1h 33m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 67

MysteryCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

While diving for sunken treasure, street-smart gumshoe Tony Rome finds the body of a gorgeous blonde, her feet stuck in a block of cement. Soon after, tough guy Waldo Gronski hires him to find a missing woman named Sandra Lomax, and Rome wonders if there's a connection. He sets about trying to locate the woman, and in no time finds himself mixed up with a beautiful party girl and a slippery racketeer.

“A beautiful body under water. A private eye in over his head.”

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Cast

Frank Sinatra
Tony Rome
Raquel Welch
Kit Forrest
Richard Conte
Lt. Dave Santini
Martin Gabel
Al Mungar
Lainie Kazan
Maria Baretto
Pat Henry
Rubin
Steve Peck
Paul Mungar
Virginia Wood
Audrey

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Gordon Douglas
Writers: Marvin H. Albert, Jack Guss
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

58 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Tony Rome Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Gordon Douglas, shot by Joseph F. Biroc. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Hugo Montenegro. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Robert L. Simpson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch and Richard Conte carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A beautiful body under water. A private eye in over his head.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0063210 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Gordon Douglas directs. Joseph F. Biroc behind the camera. Hugo Montenegro scores. Robert L. Simpson cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

158 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Part of the "Tony Rome Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
3Directed by Gordon Douglas, shot by Joseph F. Biroc. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Hugo Montenegro. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Robert L. Simpson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch and Richard Conte carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "A beautiful body under water. A private eye in over his head.".
8IMDB entry: tt0063210 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 67 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
10Classified under 11 themes, including "miami, florida", "diving", "poker", "fight".

The technical file

Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc
Original score: Hugo Montenegro
Editing: Robert L. Simpson
Costume design: Moss Mabry
Makeup / hair: Daniel C. Striepeke
Runtime: 93 min · 1h 33m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Lady in Cement (1968)

Part of

Tony Rome Collection

Also by

Gordon Douglas

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2020-02-02
★ 7/10
Stay Loose! Lady in Cement is directed by Gordon Douglas and adapted to screenplay by Marvin H. Albert (from his own novel) and Jack Guss. It stars Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Richard Conte, Martin Gabel, Lainie Kazan, Maria Baretto and Dan Blocker. Music is by Hugo Montenegro and cinematography is by Joseph F. Biroc. While diving for sunken treasure, Private Investigator Tony Rome (Sinatra) finds the body of a gorgeous blonde, her feet stuck in a block of cement. When he is hired to find a missing woman by Waldo Gronsky (Blocker), Rome thinks there might be a connection with the lady in cement. Soon, though, Rome finds himself mixed up with dodgy underworld types and the beautiful Kit Forrest (Welch)… A sequel to the previous year's hit Tony Rome, this follow up mixes raw cynicism with a colourful tone to present a Chendleresque detective thriller. The Florida settings are most pleasing, and act as a sort of bum steer since they hide some of the murk that Rome has to wade through. Sinatra quips away hard-boiled style, Blocker steals the film as a serious muscle head, while Welch is a sex bomb picture. This was the winding down period of Sinatra's movie career, and thus there was a tendency of critics to suggest he was just marking time here in this one. This isn't so, he's having fun in the role (again), and since he also made the far darker (and superior) "The Detective" this same year, he was hardly sleep-walking through his roles. Lady in Cement keeps itself busy, violent and cheekily sexy, whilst simultaneously giving us a detective mystery that never bores. 7/10
CinemaSerf2023-06-03
★ 6/10
Frank Sinatra is "Tony Rome", a gent swimming along minding his own business when he comes across a body, a lady's body - wearing concrete Wellingtons. How came she to such a watery end? Well, he sets off to find out in this really pretty crummy follow up to "Tony Rome" from a year earlier. His character is really pretty undercooked and there really isn't much chemistry between himself and co-star Raquel Welch who isn't really on very good form either. The detection element of the storyline here is almost incidental, and though that plot - what there is of it - moseys along well enough, it's all just a bit too insubstantial, even contrived, to sustain much interest once the benchmark for his wise-cracking, to cool for school look, has been established. There is quite an amusing scene when he sits watching telly with Dan Blocker and you hear the "Bonanza" theme tune, but for the rest of it, this is merely an adequate vehicle for two stars who both appeared to me to have wished that they were somewhere else.