Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This film sees the return of Miami private investigator Tony Rome. As the story opens he is scuba diving at a site that a friend assures him is the final resting place of a number of Spanish galleons; he doesn't find and wrecks… just a naked blonde with her feet set in a concrete block! Soon afterwards he is hired by a large man named Waldo Gronsky to find a blonde named Sandra, who he assures him is not the one he found earlier. The last place Sandra was seen was the house of Kit Forrest, a wealthy and attractive young widow. She had been throwing a party but didn't recall if Sandra was actually there as she had been drinking. She doesn't really want to talk so calls her neighbour; retired gangster Al Mungar. His investigation takes him to a go-go club where the manager is murdered shortly afterwards leading to the police wanting to arrest Tony for murder! If he is to clear his name he will have to stay a step ahead of the police and solve the case he was paid for.Frank Sinatra returns for a second, and sadly final, time as Tony Rome. He does a fine job as this likable detective; cool but not too cool. The case is interesting and provides several potential suspects including Kit Forrest, Gronsky and Mungar as well as more victims. For the most part the movie still feels fresh with its bright Miami locations and cool '60s feel but in other ways it has dated; most notably portrayal and treatment of homosexual characters, including by the protagonist… something that almost certainly wouldn't be accepted in a modern film. The secondary cast are solid enough; Raquel Welch is fine as Kit Forrest, her introduction where she exits a pools wearing a bikini is certainly impressive! Unfortunately she isn't quite as good a female lead as Jill St.John was in the first 'Tony Rome' film; she was sexy but lacked a certain something. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting some '60s fun; if you liked the first Tony Rome film you should enjoy this too.

Detective Tony Rome (Frank Sinatra) returns to the screen after his self titled debut, this time it's a film that's played for erm…laughs. While on a diving trip, Rome finds the body of a blonde beauty at the bottom of the sea, her feet as you might expect, encased in cement. Rome immediately on the case after being hired by man mountain Waldo Gronsky. Rome finds himself immediately at risk as he has to investigate some mafia types, who turn the tables on him and he is himself found to be the main suspect, he must now go on the run and hope to solve the case alone. The portly Sinatra tries hard to sell us the lame jokes and make us believe he is a good detective, oh and not to mention being sexually attractive to the foxy Raquel Welch, but he fails miserably, in this ham fisted vanity project. The frankly laughable denouement that surrounds every female is quite astounding, every woman in the film is a dither head, who likes bending over is front of the camera, Director Douglas of course obliges in zooming in on the cracks of their asses each time as they flex their posterior muscles. There's even a ridiculously campy gay character that beggars belief, this was a film made by "real men" for "real men" to reaffirm their own flagging sexuality, it's a shameful shambles.

LADY IN CEMENT (1968) ** Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Dan Blocker, Richard Conte, Martin Gabel, Lainie Kazan, Christine Todd. Sinatra reprises his Tony Rome gumshoe character in this other-wise routine detective yarn as he comes across the titular character (Todd), an ehtereal beautiful blonde at the bottom of the sea, while scuba-diving off the coast of sunny Florida, where he finds himself embroiled with the mob, the cops, a love interest in the comely form of heiress Welch - at her most bodacious, and the formidable Blocker as his client Waldo Gronsky, who may or may not have killed her. The on-location vibes and the honeys -including the buxom (and svelte!) Kazan, as well as a few cameos (i.e. Richard Deacon - "DICK VAN DYKE SHOW"'s Mel Cooley - as a beatnik artist! and BS Pully - the original Big Jules from Broadway's GUYS & DOLLS - as a peep show attendee) liven things up in this stagnant slice of pulp fiction.(DIR: Gordon Douglas)

Lady in Cement - PI spoof with ole Blue Eyes.Frank Sinatra is a shamus on a houseboat in Miami in this rarely funny "comedy".Burdened by an annoying and repetitious Hugo Montenegro score and bunch of misfiring punchlines this 1968 flick just never rises above slightly too bawdy to be on TV made for television movie status.Dan Blocker is effective in the Mike Mazurski/Ted De Corsia big galoot role and Raquel Welch should thank her personal trainer.The only thing that makes the DVD worth keeping or seeing is the collection of cheesy trailers for Welch flicks like Bandolero,Fantastic Voyage , Mother ,Jugs & Speed and Myra Breckinridge.Even if you get the DVD-skip the predictable movie and go for the trailer library in the special features.Besides tons of mysoginistic asides-Sinatra lisps @ the homosexual owners of the local Go-Go bar.A relic that needs to be put back in the time capsule. D