El investigador

This film is based on allegedly real deeds and adapted on novel by Roderick Thorpe and written credits by prestigious Abby Mann. It concerns about a N.Y. detective called Leland(Frank Sinatra) , he investigates the mutilation killing of a homosexual man. Leland encounters police and political corruption. Meanwhile, he has problems with his nymphomaniac spouse(Lee Remick).

This is a fine noir film blending drama, suspense, thrills and excellent performances. This film displays strong scenes with gritty description of homosexuality and police brutality included. Casting is frankly awesome, as main cast, Sinatra and Remick, as secondary support, Ralph Meeker, Jack Klugman, William Windom, Al Freeman, Robert Duvall, Jacqueline Bisset and special mention for Tony Musante as tortured homosexual. Splendid and atmospheric musical score by the master Jerry Goldsmith. Colorful and appropriate cinematography by Joseph Biroc. The motion picture is superbly constructed by Gordon Douglas. This is the best work of his long career as filmmaker. He was a Hollywood veteran director, directing early movies(Little rascals, Spanky), Western expert(Chuka,Rio Conchos, Yellowstone Kelly, Only the valiant), and worked for Frank Sinatra in various films(Lady in Cement, Tony Rome, Robin and the 7 Hoods). Rating : Better than average, this is a high-class adult entertainment and to be liked Frank Sinatra fans.

An old fashioned, sometimes silly, but altogether decent and moral little film. The isolated accusation of homophobia present elsewhere in the list of reviews is not accurate. This assumption might be made from watching only the first few minutes of the film, when certain suspicions arise, but as the film develops those suspicions turn out to be quite ungrounded and in fact the Sinatra character openly defends gay characters from a homophobic cop, and so on.

Throughout this movie the hero has actual moral integrity and refuses to abandon it, most of the time, and if he does it is not glorified. This in itself makes it worth watching just the once, given the general state of other films in the genre.

Part of the Film Noir genre is the romance angle with a powerful female lead. This neo-noir fails on that point offering a watered down, trifling character portrayed by a non-threatening Lee Remick, whose eyes the director seems obsessed with capturing long expressionless shots of. Sinatra's acting is fine, but the film technique... I can't explain how it makes him seem uncool, and the character of Leland is extremely cool and wildly open-minded for the time. Trouble is, they go very far out of their way to make him seem at once overly modern, and decidedly anchored in his values. Doesn't work. I didn't care for the camera work at all. A brilliant performance by Tony Musante as the basket-case ex-lover of the murdered gay man in the opening sequence is dminished by not properly photographing it. Great story and plot. Very sadly executed in a "message over story" way.

An honest cop gets caught up in a web of corruption as he investigates the murder of a prominent gay socialite. Frank Sinatra plays Detective Joe Leland, a beacon of decency and stability in his own unhinged world. His wife (Lee Remick) is practically a nymphomaniac, unable to control her sexual appetite, while his fellow detectives (Ralph Meeker and Robert Duvall) are involved in a widespread real estate corruption scandal known as Rainbow. The investigation of the murder takes place after the prime suspect is wrongly executed for the crime, and leads into the underground New York homosexual world of the late 60's, with some fascinating scenes shot at one of the bars, with a few faces that have been seen in other films, and a surreal atmosphere. Some have called this gay-bashing, though it seems more to be a portrayal of the secretive and closeted world of that time. In any event, the threat of being outed is an essential part of the story, and that element is quite dramatic and well done, with William Windom quite believable as the closeted and married gay man at the center of Rainbow. A tough movie of a detective caught up in a weird world of public corruption and personal crisis, catch it if you can.

Made at a time when the cinema was exploring new freedoms in language, violence and sex, this is a somewhat tough character study which is tame now, but had to be pretty gritty then. Sinatra is the title cop, a man who bucks the system at times, but has an innate core of fairness. When a wealthy homosexual is found slain and mutilated, Sinatra and his partner Freeman set out to find the culprit. Meanwhile, Sinatra reflects on his troubled marriage to sophisticated, but oversexed Remick. He arrests thuggish Musante for the crime and wins a promotion for his trouble, but, soon after, a young woman (Bisset) comes forth with a case that may be tied into the original one. Sinatra gives an assured and believable performance, though it is jarring at first to hear him bandying about terms like "penis" and "queer", etc... Remick is attractive and effortlessly sophisticated as his wife who can't seem to keep her knickers on. The supporting cast is made up of great pros who offer a lot. Meeker is a jaded, slimy fellow detective. Klugman does well as a family man cop who helps Sinatra crack cases. Duvall is menacing as a hard-nosed and prejudicial policeman. Musante is so over-the-top it is unbelievable! His interrogation scene is a lesson in extremes (and helped sideline his US career for a while.) Bisset is lovely, as usual, but was shoehorned in (costumes and all!) at the eleventh hour for Sinatra's estranged wife Mia Farrow and the part doesn't fit her as well. She's meant to be a slightly boyish type and that's a tad easier to do on Farrow than it was on Bisset. Bochner is a little too cartoon-campy as a vaguely sinister psychiatrist. Though today's audience will likely find many things to pick apart with the story, it is nonetheless a fascinating glimpse into what Hollywood's depiction of gays was at the time. One unintentionally funny scene involves a dockside parking lot in which scores of gay men crowd into the back of cargo trucks and snuggle - fully clothed! There's also a groovy trip into a velvety gay bar. The film's chief flaws are its overuse of LENGTHY flashbacks and a hugely distracting habit of having Sinatra and Remick deliver lines directly into the camera, a big no-no except in comedies or quirky dramas. The flashbacks are necessary in order to flush out the romantic story, but they tend to be disjointed and overlong. The issue of speaking to the camera could have been easily solved by just having the actors act opposite each other. This was an experiment that just doesn't work. But the film has a fair share of interesting dialogue, situations and visual appeal. One amusing line has a forensic specialist telling Sinatra that the victim was a homosexual. Sinatra looks around the overdone apartment and says, "Looks like he was a leader!" Moss Mabry got quite a workout coming up with outfits for Remick, less so for Bisset.