Die erste Todsünde (1980)

Die erste Todsünde: Directed by Brian G. Hutton. With Frank Sinatra, Faye Dunaway, David Dukes, George Coe. A police inspector, nearing retirement, tracks a serial killer who is terrorizing New York.

“I saw someone elseu0026#39;s user comments on this film and I canu0026#39;t believe that there were going to be series of films based on Frank Sinatrau0026#39;s character mainly because of the ending this film had. If youu0026#39;re thinking that gives the ending away, donu0026#39;t look for an obvious conclusion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTo his credit, I guess Frank Sinatra did not want to end his film career with Dirty Dingus Magee. He wanted to end his film with the serious part, unfortunately The First Deadly Sin messes up the telling of a potentially good tale.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFrank Sinatra is days away from his retirement as a Detective Sergeant and a strange murder has been assigned to him. A man apparently selected at random is killed with an unidentified weapon that is just driven into the top of his skull. A little good detective work and he finds their just might be a pattern of killings.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s all in identifying the weapon and itu0026#39;s an unusual one at that which I wonu0026#39;t reveal. A professor in medieval history played by Martin Gabel helps with the hunt and later on heu0026#39;s joined by the widow of Sinatrau0026#39;s victim, Brenda Vaccaro to help with the hunt.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTheyu0026#39;re helping because Sinatrau0026#39;s new captain is one total jerk played by Anthony Zerbe. Maybe Iu0026#39;m missing something in Zerbeu0026#39;s performance, but I would think that an ambitious guy like Zerbe plays would instead of pooh-poohing Sinatrau0026#39;s ideas would think that this guy if he is on to something with this serial killer business. And if heu0026#39;s right Zerbe will get all kinds of accolades for figuring this out in his precinct and even more if the doer is apprehended. Itu0026#39;s an absolutely impossible role and poor Anthony Zerbe canu0026#39;t do much with it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll this while Franku0026#39;s wife Faye Dunaway falls ill to a misdiagnosed kidney malady. She spends all her time in the hospital and Sinatra visits her at breaks in this case.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFrank delivers a very good performance in a role similar to the one he had in The Detective. Heu0026#39;s supported by the rest of the cast very well, except with Anthony Zerbeu0026#39;s impossible role. Besides who Iu0026#39;ve mentioned look for a really nice turn by Joe Spinell as the mendacious doorman where suspect David Dukes lives. His role is similarly undefined, we really never learn why heu0026#39;s doing these crimes.”