Detective, The (1968)

The Detective (1968), directed by Gordon Douglas.

Frank Sinatra plays a hard working, serious police detective. He reflects on an unhappy marriage with Lee Remick (she's a sex addict who can't help stepping out and sleeping with strangers) while investigating two seemingly unrelated cases: the murder and mutilation of a wealthy gay man, and the apparent suicide of a man involved in political corruption. Both cases come together in the end.

It brings a new grittiness to the police procedural and blunt talk about homosexuality that I don't think we had before. The police station is actually pretty clean; it would become grungier in a few years.

Surrounded by bad cops, the Detective is incorruptible but also hard, ambitious but ambivalent about doing the political maneuvering necessary to advance. He can extract a confession from a psycho suspect, but is something of a radical, defending protesters and expressing outrage because of the little people harmed by corruption. When asked if he minds dealing with gays on the murder case he shrugs: "I've got my own bag." A bag of trouble.

With Jacqueline Bisset, age 24. Robert Duvall and Ralph Meeker are bad cops.

Jerry Goldsmith score.

This is from the 10-disc "Frank Sinatra Film Collection." The titles I've seen so far have all been anamorphic and dual-layer.