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Solved: Lesser known Sinatra movie

posted 6 years ago by 123all4me (186)
3 replies | jump to latest

Hello,
I remember having seen a movie starring Frank Sinatra, years ago, on TV; it was a dark story (without any appearances of him as a singer) about a cop in, I think, New York City who was hunting a murderer. Possibly it was a serial killer, or another cop had been killed - I don't remember that.
But what really stuck to my mind was this: All through the movie there was a parallel storyline - the Detective's husband (or probably his little daughter, I'm not sure about that) was in hospital, terminally ill from cancer or something; and whenever he could afford the time, Sinatra's character went there to visit her; I think I remember that he read some stories from a book of fairy tales to her... and he tenderly called her "my honeybun" several times...
Very dark and tragic...
I must admit that I didn't browse the COMPLETE movie list of Frank Sinatra on imdb; he appeared in so many movies that I gave up, at some point. But I hope someone might know the title!
Kind regards
Andreas (123all4me)

[–] Ricknot (65) 6 years ago

I know this well. It is “The First Deadly Sin”. It’s his wife who is ill and he is after a serial killer. I read the book years before the movie and was thrilled at how well it was done on film. Sinatra was very good in the movie as well and perfect for the role.

[–] 123all4me (186) 6 years ago

Hello Ricknot,
thank you very much for solving the mystery for me!
One funny detail - I was absolutely unaware who played the Detective's dying wife. Faye Dunaway! I found her VERY unsympathetic in "The Champ" (1979), one year before "The First Deadly Sin" but I must admit that her performance, as such, wasn't bad; so I'm curious about her contribution to "Deadly Sin" (it's been too long ago since I've watched the movie, so I don't recall whether she was already bedridden when the movie started)
I saw that the movie got mixed critics; but the Great Roger Ebert Himself gave it 4 of 5 stars, so that makes a good reason for me to fetch the dvd :-)
Kind regards
Andreas (123all4me)

[–] Ricknot (65) 6 years ago

Glad to help. I actually liked this film a lot, as much as I liked the book. Dunaway was f8ne in the role but not too much to do. The killer is played by David Dukes, a very underrated actor who was quite good in this role.