Tony Rome (1967)

A drunken underage girl sleeping in a sleazy hotel room is the starting point of a complicated chain of events involving a missing jewel, murder, and family members with something to hide. A private detective tries to get to the bottom of it in the sunny state of Florida.

One-liners that keep coming, a tightly woven plot, nice locations. The film resists a unified analysis, it seems to mean nothing. One scene, however, sticks to mind: Rome's physical assault at a homosexual drug dealer. It is a heavily moralizing scene, which prompts an immediate reaction from the spectator. The fact that the dealer is a homosexual is perhaps without signification (but it is intriguing that the next year some key participants in this film would make The Detective, in which a homosexual appears as an innocent victim -- bad conscience?), and it will be disregarded for the sake of simplicity. Let us remember that the aggression scene is preceded by that of a junkie stripper, already feeling the anxiety of abstinence, entering the home of the dealer; she hands him all her money, and asks for "all it can buy". After the aggression Rome drops some of the product in a vase, and later he will snitch on the dealer to his cop friend. The dealer is thus portrayed as an absolute villain. Some will no doubt applaud the whole position of the film, and will think nothing of it. Those in turn who will instinctively raise a doubt will try to make a connectin with the rest of the movie. In fact, this connection is easy to make, because the consumption of a different kind of drug is present at various points in the movie, and in fact it is present in its very starting point. I am of course talking about alcohol. The effects of alcohol are felt by the young woman who is found sleeping at the hotel after having run away from home. Alcohol abuse is here an important element of the plot and points to a family dysfunction. But there is no questioning of the legal status of the commerce of liquor, and the seller is never seen. When all the character's family problems are solved, it is implicit that alcohol will no longer be a problem. The excessive behavior of that character is contrasted with the protagonist's "civilized" habit of drinking, which matches that of his young divorcee friend. Alcohol is presented as a healthy habit, may be drunk at all hours, and at one scene is preferred over coffee. It provides the film with light humor, and an atmosphere of charm and sexiness (gin for him, vodka for her). A very positive, "cool" view. Addiction is never mentioned, neither for the "civilized" drinkers nor for the "reckless" one. This contrasts with the addiction to gambling, which is a prominent feature of the protagonist, and plays an important role on his unstable love life. I think by now the subjacent pro-liquor ideology of the film has become evident. Of course, the liquor industry does not see its competitors with friendly eyes, which explains the virulent attack on the drug dealer, and the mild reproach at the gambling habit. This film has a meaning after all.

Rating: 60