The First Deadly Sin is a 1980 American crime thriller film produced by and starring Frank Sinatra. The film features Faye Dunaway, David Dukes, Brenda Vaccaro, James Whitmore, and Martin Gabel in his final role. The film also features Bruce Willis in his feature film debut as an uncredited extra. The film is based on the 1973 novel of the same name written by Lawrence Sanders. The screenplay was written by Mann Rubin.
The film originally was slated to be directed by Roman Polanski, who was dropped by Columbia Pictures after statutory rape charges were brought against him. Director Brian G. Hutton took over the production after Polanski fled to France.
The last of nine films produced by Sinatra, and his final starring role, he plays NYPD Sergeant Edward X. Delaney, a troubled veteran New York City Police Department homicide detective. In a supporting role, Dunaway is Delaney's ailing wife Barbara, who is hospitalized with a rare kidney affliction.
The First Deadly Sin was the third production by Sinatra's Artanis production company and was shot on location in New York City. It premiered on October 23, 1980 at Loew's State Theatre in Times Square as part of a benefit for the Cabrini Medical Center, a key location in the film. The musical score was by composer and arranger Gordon Jenkins, who first worked with Sinatra on the 1957 album Where Are You?
Contents
Plot
Outside Mount Pleasant Baptist Church on West 81st Street in Manhattan, Bernard Gilbert is attacked by another man wielding an ice axe. Meanwhile at Mother Cabrini Hospital, Barbara Delaney is undergoing emergency surgery. The NYPD arrive to process the crime scene outside the church. The coroner, Dr. Ferguson, shows Barbara's husband Sergeant Edward Delaney that the fatal wound on Gilbert's skull was made with a round object.
Meanwhile, the 20th Precinct receives news Barbara is recovering from surgery. The information is relayed to Delaney at the scene, and he rushes to the hospital. Barbara's surgeon, Dr. Vincent Bernardi, explains that complications from her kidney stones forced him to remove the organ. Over time, Barbara's condition worsens, and Delaney harbors deep suspicions that Bernardi is incompetent.
The murder on 81st Street is a kind of solace for Delaney. Much to his colleagues' surprise, he throws himself into the case despite constant admonitions from his friends and supervisors that the NYPD's priorities are elsewhere. One of his early visits is to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he consults with Arms and Armor curator Christopher Langley about the type of weapon that could make such a unique wound. The elderly Langley is thrilled to have such a unique problem to solve, and he devotes a great deal of time to research.
The angle of entry and the perfectly spherical nature of the wound eliminate most of the weapons familiar to Langley. He decides the weapon must have been some kind of tool, and he visits a hardware store, where he explicitly asks for the best implement to kill someone. A bemused clerk helps Langley deduce that the weapon was most likely an ice axe.
Delaney has discovered that a similar attack had occurred recently on West 79th Street. After consulting with the perpetually harried Ferguson, he discovers that the wound patterns are nearly identical. As they investigate, they realize that similar attacks have been taking place all over New York City. Langley uses the new information to locate the exact model of ice axe that would cause such injuries. At one sporting goods store, the owner Sol Appel hands over the addresses that he collected from every customer who bought that ice axe. The addresses eventually lead Delaney to the high-rise building of Daniel Blank, who has been shown throughout cleaning up after his murders.
Cast
Frank Sinatra as Sergeant Edward X. Delaney
Faye Dunaway as Barbara Delaney
James Whitmore as Dr. Sanford Ferguson
David Dukes as Daniel Blank
Brenda Vaccaro as Monica Gilbert
Martin Gabel as Christopher Langley
Anthony Zerbe as Captain Broughton
George Coe as Dr. Vincent Bernardi
Joe Spinell as Charles Lipsky
Anna Navarro as Sunny Jordeen
Jeffrey DeMunn as Sergeant Fernandez Correlli
Robert Weil as Sol Appel
Hugh Hurd as Ben Johnson
Eddie Jones as Officer Curdy
Victor Arnold as Officer Kendall
Reuben Greene as Bill Garvin
Richard Backus as Walt Ashman
Frederick Rolf as Judge James Braggs
Michael Ingram as Bernard Gilbert
Bill Couch as Albert Feinberg
Larry Loonin as Hardware Salesman
Ramón Franco as Boy on Bus
Production
This is Frank Sinatra's last starring role, as well as the first film appearance for Bruce Willis, as an extra walking past Edward Delaney (Sinatra) in a restaurant (although he is virtually unrecognizable, owing to a hat that covers his eyes).
The film's ending was changed from the Lawrence Sanders novel in which the killer Daniel Blank retreated to a bluff called Devil's Needle in upstate New York where he died of dehydration before Delaney and the state troopers were able to bring him down. Here, a less subtle approach allowed the ending to be more in tune with the rest of the film.
William L. DeAndrea noted that "for [the film's] network TV showing, Sinatra added a spoken voice-over" to the conclusion, "changing the meaning of the final images completely".
Critical reception
Critics Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin both praised Sinatra's performance as one of his better performances, and daughter Nancy Sinatra commented in her book Sinatra: An American Legend that her father was very excited about this film.
The First Deadly Sin holds a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on nine reviews.
Accolades
Nominated: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, Best Supporting Actor, Martin Gabel
Nominated: Edgar Allan Poe Awards, Edgar Award, Best Motion Picture
Nominated: Golden Raspberry Awards, Worst Actress, Faye Dunaway