The First Deadly Sin (DVD, 1999)

After almost 10 years away from the silver screen, an older Frank Sinatra returns to it for this, his final performance. Sgt. Delaney (Sinatra) is on his last case (ironically--in his last film) before retiring from the NYPD. Though as a viewer I felt like I was entering into a film already in progress when it started, it was because the first scene is in an operating room, where Mrs. Delaney (an alluring Faye Dunaway) is having one of her kidneys removed in an emergency procedure.

Though Sgt. Delaney is one foot out of the NYPD where he's always "gone by the book," this time, his much beloved wife lay dying in the hospital while a serial killer with a weird weapon on the streets randomly murders, & both are wearing one his nearly shattered nerves.

This time he goes unconventional on the sly away from the police force by accepting the help of an antique amour museum curator's (Martin Gabel) help to figure out the weapon the killer's using. A grungy & gruff coroner (James Whitmore) is going to also do the unconventional as they plot to unearth a previous victim who Whitmore pronounced had died of different causes. What's even way beyond the pale is that Delaney asks one of the murder victim's widow (Brenda Vaccaro) to work on finding the murderer's name with the curator in stacks of a sports store's mailing labels. The serial killer is played by David Dukes.

It's a melancholy kind of drama that examines the on & off duty life of a NYPD cop who's coming towards the end of his life as he's known it. The film moves fittingly slow, is not a fast wild goose chase or full of high impact thrills & adventure. It's supposed to be laid back because the theme is really about endings. Including the surprising way the murder mystery part of the film ends. The whole film's end is bittersweet. The acting is top drawer, first rate all pro dramatic performances.