moonspinner55 Middle-aged talents hoping to keep up with the current tastes in cinema. Frank Sinatra is a police inspector in New York City, just weeks away from retirement, who notices similarities in a series of murder victims: the skulls of the deceased have all been punctured by some kind of hammer, possibly delivered from behind in a cold blow. With so many TV cop shows mining this territory, the only reason for the producers to do a theatrical adaptation of Lawrence Sanders' novel was to get Sinatra on-screen again (he hadn't acted since 1977's "Contract on Cherry Street" for television). You can tell right away director Brian G. Hutton and his editor are aiming low: the opening sequence crosscuts between a violent murder on a dark, cold street and a woman in the hospital being sliced open by surgeons. That woman, Faye Dunaway, plays Sinatra's wife, slowly succumbing to a mystery infection that has already rotted her liver, and it's a humiliating role. Far better off are James Whitmore as a pathologist and Brenda Vaccaro as the wife of a victim. Anthony Zerbe gets stuck with the proverbial hard-ass police commander role (he chews Sinatra out for following the insane 'serial killer' angle), but Sinatra does a good job here, keeping a cool head and carrying most of the picture with his innate panache. ** from ****

Michael_Elliott The First Deadly Sin (1980)** 1/2 (out of 4)Weeks from retirement, Detective Edward Delaney (Frank Sinatra) is trying to take care of his bed-ridden wife while at the same time trying to figure out who murdered a man with what appears to be an ice ax. Pretty soon it becomes clear that there's a serial killer at work and the detective must try and find out who it is even though he has no one behind him.THE FIRST DEADLY SIN turned out to be Sinatra's final theatrical starring role and it came ten years after his previous turn in DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE. The film was originally released to rather mixed reviews and it ended up not doing too well at the box office and in all reality the thing has pretty much been forgotten in time. It's really too bad the film turned out so mediocre because with a few fine touches it really could have been something special.As it is the film is only worth watching thanks to the excellent performance from Sinatra. The actor had played a detective in some of his late 60's films so it's clear that Sinatra was comfortable playing this type of role. It's also clear that the age of Sinatra here had him showing off a certain calm and patience that we didn't always see to him. You can really see the actor slowly working and carefully planning out the characters moves and I think it really makes for an excellent performance. The actor has such a presence on the screen that it's impossible to take your eyes off of him.The supporting cast includes nice work from James Whitmore, Joe Spinell and Brenda Vaccaro. Faye Dunaway plays the role of the wife and in all honesty she has very little to do outside of acting sick and laying in a bed. This here is the biggest issue with the movie because whenever we flash to her hospital scenes it pretty much kills everything and the film comes to a crashing halt. What's so bad about these scenes is that there's nothing that really happens. Sinatra gives her a flow several times. They talk about the same thing (a house) and there's just nothing here that adds anything to the plot.It also doesn't help that the direction by Brian G Hutton is so deadly dull. There's no visual style going on. There's never any tension. The movie has a very cheap feel as if it belongs on television. What's worse is that it's pretty out-of-date with the times as it seems like it should have been made a decade earlier. They just don't do anything with the material and even the killer is rather boring.THE FIRST DEADLY SIN is worth watching because of the excellent performance by Sinatra but sadly there's not much else here.

rowmorg Sinatra financed this movie and starred in it, so he is wholly responsible for it, and it shows just what a ghastly gangster-fascist he really was, because --- as no one on this board appears to have even noticed --- it wholly endorses police murder.With the notoriously whitewashed De Menezes and Dziezinski police killings, plus scores of taser deaths, fresh in our minds, we should be calling for this film to be withdrawn from circulation, including from lending libraries. What validity is there in a film that shows its hero taking a death sentence into his own hands, and executing a villain with impunity? Sinatra is supposed to be an Irish detective-sergeant nearing his retirement when serial killings occur. Perhaps the Irish theme explains the prominent Catholic crucifixes on display in various scenes. Or perhaps they are just proto-fascist totems for the vigilante faithful.This film not only endorses repellent values, it is utterly idiotic, with Sinatra conducting a series of interviews to arrive at the screamingly obvious fact that the crimes were committed with an ice-pick. The blindingly blatant ID of the weapon takes him several days, and involves an improbable character undertaking part of the investigation on his behalf. Ridiculous! In an unrelated series of scenes Faye Dunaway, his much-younger wife, is expiring from complications arising from a kidney removal. This gives Frank ample room to display his inability to act, which we have to add to his inability to judge a script or to embrace civilised values.When he summarily executes the killer, this moronic cop (who took a week to identify an ice-pick), transgresses all police regulations, civil and moral law, but all he has to do is turn in his badge and he walks free.An utterly contemptible monument to a disgusting man and the hideously violent and sociopathic circles he moved in. Avoid completely.

nogimmicks Above-average police procedural based on the excellent novel by Lawrence Sanders. The Chairman of the Board delivers a powerful performance as Sgt. Detective Edward X. Delany, and David Dukes's Daniel Blank is suitably psychotic (if a bit tamer than in the novel). Plays somewhat fast and loose with the adaption, but still does the book justice. Like the book, this is somewhat slow paced and character-driven, but Sinatra does such a good job at making Delany human and making the audience emote for him that the shortcomings seem minimal. If you are a fan of Sanders, police procedurals, or Frank Sinatra, then this film is certainly worth checking out.