The Detective Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Detective Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 31, 2015

According to some online sources, The Detective premiered on May 28, 1968. That was a year and a month (to the day) before June 28, 1969’s infamous Stonewall riots, an uprising which for the first time brought the then “revolutionary” idea of gay rights to the forefront of a general public consciousness. The reaction to the Stonewall fracas was as splintered as any cultural bulwark tends to be in our country, as might be expected. Many in “mainstream” (meaning, heterosexual) society found the whole thing shocking, if also weirdly amusing, while those in the gay community felt that their voices were finally being heard, coming to the realization that there was indeed an undeniable strength in numbers. Had The Detective appeared in the wake of Stonewall, chances are it might have handled its gay subtext with a bit more artfulness, but the film is still notable for its early attempt to peer into a culture that few in America had really paid attention to in any meaningful way. Frank Sinatra portrays the titular cop, a New York policeman named Joe Leland who is called to investigate a rather gruesome murder which has included genital mutilation. When it turns out the victim was gay, several of Leland’s cohorts are oddly bemused, feeling that the case doesn’t even warrant any undue investigation. Leland ends up “solving” the case, though that ostensible solution turns out to be only the first step in what turns out to be a rather convoluted array of plot developments that ultimately plays upon a certain sort of paranoia and conspiracy that would become more of a cinematic staple in a few years once the Watergate Era became prevalent.

Interestingly, one of the first mainstream efforts that sought to deal more or less honestly with what being gay or bisexual was like, Mart Crowley’s iconic The Boys in the Band, had just opened off Broadway a little more than a month prior to The Detective’s debut. Crowley’s play would famously (some would say infamously) become a film in 1970, and it’s really kind of fascinating to view the subtle but inescapable sea change that had already started to permeate American culture in that brief timespan between 1968 and 1970 with regard to how the public at large saw homosexuality or bisexuality. What some contemporary viewers, especially those raised in an era of greater understanding about the spectrum of human sexuality, may find fascinating about The Detective from a historical and even sociological perspective is how it both wants to traffic in so-called sensationalism with regard to homosexuality while also toeing a line that would make the film acceptable for a mainstream (presumably mostly straight) audience.

Were 1968 audiences shocked to hear Sinatra utter the words “penis” and “semen” in just his first couple of minutes on screen as Detective Leland? Probably, though it’s notable that at least in some cases The Detective achieves its shock value through language rather than actual on screen depiction of illicit behavior. In fact, it’s not until relatively late in the film that we see what might be termed intimate behavior between males, and then it’s in the dark and just a passing kiss. Instead, the film is rife with commentary about being gay if not necessarily about the gay lifestyle, with Leland repeatedly playing good cop to a whole battery of bad cops (including a young Robert Duvall) who harass various gay men in their search for the killer (and mutilator) of the son of a famous New York businessman.

Structurally, The Detective is a bit of an odd duck. The film begins in a fairly lurid fashion with the aforementioned murder, but then gets waylaid in the first of a couple of too long flashback sequences that start to detail some roiling dysfunction in a heterosexual relationship, namely that between Leland and his estranged wife Karen (Lee Remick). It’s hard to sense where the organic links between these elements are, other than to think screenwriter Abby Mann is offering up something akin to “things are tough all over”. Leland and his newbie acolyte Robbie Loughlin (Al Freeman, Jr.) think they’ve got the case cracked when they arrest the victim’s roommate, an obviously unhinged fellow named Felix Tesla (Tony Musante). Tesla ultimately goes to the electric chair at around an hour into this more or less two hour enterprise, which of course indicates he may not be the actual killer. Musante’s portrayal really needs to be seen to be believed (and maybe not even then). Suffice it to say his grimacing when Tesla is electrocuted is actually among the more subtle of his facial contortions.

The second half of the film deals with a pretty widow named Norma MacIver (Jacqueline Bissett in a role that Sinatra evidently wanted his then wife Mia Farrow to play), who asks Leland to reopen a case where her late husband was found to have committed suicide. That brings him into contact with a perhaps scheming analyst named Roberts (Lloyd Bochner) who too conveniently has connections to Norma, the late Mr. MacIver and (silliest of all) Karen. Leland starts investigating with his team (including Jack Klugman who is unfortunately forced to emit a series of Yiddishisms), and ultimately starts to uncover a conspiracy that rather ironically goes by the code name Rainbow. Without spoiling anything major, it of course turns out that the death of MacIver is directly linked to the murder of the businessman’s son.

The Detective turns out to be something of a potboiler, offering a tantalizingly salacious view of a “dangerous” subculture while also giving lip service to “live and let live” (one of Leland’s oft stated precepts). The climax is frankly ludicrous, calling on the stalwart William Windom, as the late MacIver, to give a “Moishe the explainer” wrap up courtesy of some cassette tapes. Still, director Gordon Douglas manages to introduce a relatively realistic mien to much of the proceedings, and Sinatra is able to convincingly portray a world weary type who doesn’t mind throwing a few punches to keep his troops in line.

The Detective Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Detective is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Shot by journeyman Joseph Biroc (It's a Wonderful Life, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and The Towering Inferno, for which he was awarded an Oscar), the film has a sort of gritty ambience that serves its sometimes lurid subject matter very well. Elements are in tip top condition, with little to no time inflicted damage, and a natural looking grain field is supported without any compression anomalies. The palette also looks nicely robust, although the film doesn't really exploit bright pops of color other than individual elements like a bright green dress Remick wears. Detail is excellent, especially in close-ups. The opticals leading into and out of flashbacks have the expected uptick in softness and grain. There are some very minor issues with image instability and contrast wavers (especially in a couple of scenes taking place in shrouded environments like car interiors), but this is overall a great looking transfer.

The Detective Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Detective's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track capably supports a relatively unambitious sound design, one which occasionally traffics in the urban sounds of New York, but which more frequently lets scenes play out as relatively intimate dialogue interchanges between a couple of characters at a time. Jerry Goldsmith's appealing score sounds fine (and receives a bit of a fuller presentation in the isolated score option included on the Blu-ray).

The Detective Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.


• Audio Commentary features David Del Valle and Lem Dobbs hosted by Twilight Time's Nick Redman.


• Original Theatrical Trailer 1 (480i; 3:16)


• Original Theatrical Trailer 2 (480i; 2:23)

The Detective Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The character of Leland is perhaps too virtuous for the world depicted in The Detective, one in which his fellow cops berate gays and who also horrifyingly shoot an unarmed black man in one passing incident that seems oddly prescient to today's news cycle. The moral turpitude if not outright corruption of the cops is perhaps even more disturbing than some of the objectionable attitudes on display toward some of the gay men in the picture. The intervening years have seen such a complete reversal in how the public at large views gay relationships that a lot of The Detective comes off as either oddly quaint or downright outdated, but Sinatra's doleful performance anchors the film solidly and keeps it compelling if never very realistic. Technical merits are generally very strong and The Detective comes Recommended.