While the heart of The First Deadly Sin is a detective crime story, part of the movie is a tender and unusual romance. Frank Sinatra stars as a tired, not very young detective who tries to solve a murder he's been given very few clues to go off of. Sometimes in detective movies, once a clue clicks into place, an arrest is quickly made afterwards. In this one, Frank and his co-workers exhaust themselves to find out exactly what a clue means, and how to prove it actually is a clue, which is both realistic and well written.When not on the clock, Frank visits his wife Faye Dunaway in the hospital. She's had a difficult operation, and their scenes together are tender, sad, and touching. He brings her little presents, she tries to seem like she has more strength than she feels, and the audience can see both their pain. These scenes, although terribly sad, are the best parts of the movie. But it also makes for a pretty heavy storyline, so if you're going to watch this one, make sure you have some Kleenexes nearby.

***SPOILERS*** Frank Sinatra plays the about to put in his papers and retire NYPD Sergeant Edward X Delaney who's obsessed in finding this ice pick killer who's terrorizing the city of New York. The fact that Sgt. Delaney's wife Barbara , Faye Dunaway, is in critical condition and on life support because of a blotched kidney operation doesn't make his task any more easier. It doesn't take long to see who this crazed ice pick wielding psycho is since we see him Daniel Blank, David Dukes, as soon as the film starts as he ice picks to death a total stranger who passes him in the street.It's Sgt. Delaney who later notices a pattern in a number of murders over the last three yeas in the city that fit the same MO or description and realizes they, the victims, were that of the very same killer.Meanwhil back in the hospital emergency ward Sgt. Delaney's wife Barbara is fighting for her life as her husband seems to be spending far more time looking for Daniel Blanks then with her when in the critical condition that she's in she needed him most. The film centers around the killer's weapon of choice to do in his victims a mountain climbing ice pick that he brains and murderers his victims with. It's in discovering that the killer has mountain climbing experience that narrows down the search in finding him. Sgt. Delaney finally tracks down "Dandy Dan" Danny Blank at his high rise apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side and plans to arrest him but has no real concrete evidence to do it or make his arrest stick. Bending the law a bit to say the least Sgt. Delaney ends up breaking it to bring Daniel Blank to justice. And it's the fact that Sgt. Delaney worked on this case alone with no one in the NYPD to see what he did and turn him in he ended up getting away with it.***SPOILERS*** Despite his success in offing the ice pick serial killer in the end Sgt. Delaney ended up losing the person who meant most to him his wife Barbara who died from complications from the blotch operation that was preformed on her. A more mild and mellower Frank Sinatra did make the movie interesting then it would have been in playing his age,65, and not trying to be at least 20 years younger in the role he had. As for Faye Dunaway all she did during the entire movie was go in and out of consciousness and try to look pretty, but as white as a sheet, during the entire time she was on camera. As for David Dukes as the zombie like serial killer Daniel Blank his name, Blank, fit the role he had in his zombie like actions through the entire movie. The biggest surprise is in the end when he finally opened his mouth and told the reason for his murderous actions which made as much sense as the cannibalistic and real life serial killer Jeffery Dhamer reasons for murdering his victims did.

A sombre character drama crossed with an old-fashion police detective story is broken up in two parts, as a retiring NYPD Edward X. Delaney is on his last case tracking down a psychotic serial killer while also dealing with his bed-ridden wife (a warm-hearted Faye Dunaway) that's dying in the hospital from an unclear disease. How these two threads are connected isn't really garnished, other than to give the lead character more emotional weight and progressive depth. Instead it just comes across as depressing and somewhat pointless. It manages to hold you there, but not much really happens in this slow-grinding thriller as Frank Sinatra's wearily brooding performance is determined, but filled with melancholy heartache. Ambitious, but unfulfilled and too long toothed is how you can describe it. The narrative just feels incomplete, like it was aiming for something more profound (like the symbolic use of the cross) and mysterious (the killer's motive) but it came away rather puzzling and affected in its intentions. The grungy New York setting is painted with darkness, dreary atmospherics as there's a killer randomly leaving his victims with a hole in the back of their heads. A lot of the running time (and at times it does drag) has Delaney working the case, starting with very little. Putting in the hours, strenuously gathering info, seeking help outside the police force and thoroughly digging in as his personal life begins to crumble. The focus on his sick wife does very little for the story, but it takes up a fair amount of screen time. When Sinatra isn't mugging the screen, there's some able support in the cast; Martin Gabel, James Whitmore and Joe Spinell added some much needed life. David Dukes makes for an effective loony, but his icy character was just felt too one-note. An interesting, but sleepily underdone dramatic thriller.

I saw someone else's user comments on this film and I can't believe that there were going to be series of films based on Frank Sinatra's character mainly because of the ending this film had. If you're thinking that gives the ending away, don't look for an obvious conclusion.To 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.Frank 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.It's all in identifying the weapon and it's an unusual one at that which I won't reveal. A professor in medieval history played by Martin Gabel helps with the hunt and later on he's joined by the widow of Sinatra's victim, Brenda Vaccaro to help with the hunt.They're helping because Sinatra's new captain is one total jerk played by Anthony Zerbe. Maybe I'm missing something in Zerbe's performance, but I would think that an ambitious guy like Zerbe plays would instead of pooh-poohing Sinatra's ideas would think that this guy if he is on to something with this serial killer business. And if he's right Zerbe will get all kinds of accolades for figuring this out in his precinct and even more if the doer is apprehended. It's an absolutely impossible role and poor Anthony Zerbe can't do much with it.All this while Frank'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.Frank delivers a very good performance in a role similar to the one he had in The Detective. He's supported by the rest of the cast very well, except with Anthony Zerbe's impossible role. Besides who I'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 he's doing these crimes.