# The Detective
**The Detective** is a 1968 American crime drama directed by Gordon Douglas, starring [Frank Sinatra](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-sinatra) as New York Police Department Detective Sergeant Joe Leland, who investigates the murder of a gay man and uncovers corruption within his own department. It was adapted by Abby Mann from Roderick Thorp's 1966 bestselling novel of the same name, produced by Aaron Rosenberg for Twentieth Century-Fox, and released at 114 minutes in De Luxe color and [Panavision](https://www.edgepedia.org/panavision).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Source | Roderick Thorp's 1966 novel *The Detective*; the hardcover sold 300,000 copies and Avon Books printed a first run of 800,000 paperbacks[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE) |
| Principal cast | Frank Sinatra (Det. Sgt. Joe Leland), Lee Remick (Karen), Jacqueline Bisset (Norma MacIver), Jack Klugman, Ralph Meeker, Tony Musante, Robert Duvall[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detective/cast-and-crew) |
| Key crew | Director Gordon Douglas; screenwriter Abby Mann; producer Aaron Rosenberg; cinematographer Joseph Biroc; composer Jerry Goldsmith[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE) |
| Production | 16 October to 11 December 1967; six weeks of location filming in New York City ($1.4 million of a $5.5-million budget), then interiors at Fox Studios in Los Angeles[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE) |
| Release | New York premiere 28 May 1968; citywide opening 29 May 1968; Los Angeles opening 26 Jun 1968[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE) |
| Reception | 100% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes (8 reviews) against a 46% audience score; IMDb rating 6.5/10[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detective) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062883/ratings/) |
| Legacy | Thorp's 1979 sequel novel *Nothing Lasts Forever*, about the same character, was retooled into *Die Hard* (1988)[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1144152/the-detective-1968) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
New York City Detective Joe Leland is assigned to investigate the murder of Teddy Leikman, the gay son of a politically influential department store owner. Aware that a quick arrest will help his promotion prospects, Leland brings in the dead man's psychopathic former roommate, Felix Tesla, and extracts a confession. After witnessing Tesla's execution and receiving his promotion, Leland tries unsuccessfully to repair his marriage to Karen. He is then visited by Norma MacIver, the wealthy widow of an accountant who fell to his death from a racetrack grandstand roof; her inquiry leads Leland into a cover-up connected to his earlier case, involving corrupt land speculation, political payoffs, and police kickbacks.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE) • [6](https://www.filmsite.org/detective.html)
## Production history
The film rights to Thorp's novel were sold in 1966 to the independent producer and former actor [Robert Evans](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-evans), who suggested he might play Detective Sergeant Joe Leland himself. Nearly five months later, the option was picked up by producer Fred Kohlmar and director Mark Robson for Twentieth Century-Fox, and Sinatra was signed to play Leland with Abby Mann writing the screenplay.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE) In May 1967, producer Aaron Rosenberg took over the project from Kohlmar, and Gordon Douglas replaced Robson as director; Sinatra and Robson reportedly did not see "eye-to-eye." Douglas and Sinatra had just completed *Tony Rome* (1967) together and planned its sequel, *Lady in Cement* (1968), immediately after.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE)
**Casting change.** Fox signed Sinatra's wife, [Mia Farrow](https://www.edgepedia.org/mia-farrow), to co-star with Sinatra and [Lee Remick](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-remick) once she finished *Rosemary's Baby*. The production shot around her absence, but in late November 1967 the *New York Times* announced her replacement by the English actress [Jacqueline Bisset](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacqueline-bisset). Filming ended on 8 December 1967, except for one day's work by William Windom.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE)
Mann, known for socially conscious films such as *Judgment at Nuremberg* (1961), was contracted to be on the set daily to revise dialogue. He said his screenplay "differs sharply from the original novel": changing Leland from a private eye to a police detective gave him "the opportunity to make several statements about the police and about society that were not in the novel."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE)
## Themes and style
The film is a police procedural that took advantage of the loosening of screen content just before the MPAA rating system was imposed in 1968, treating homosexuality, police brutality, and corruption with an openness new to mainstream Hollywood.[7](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1600dete.html) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1144152/the-detective-1968) The language was more profane and the violence more pronounced than in Sinatra's earlier films, and sexuality was a central theme; TCM's essay notes that by later standards the film's view of homosexuality seems dated, but that in 1968 it was a risky step for a star of Sinatra's stature to appear in a film treating such formerly taboo subjects so openly.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1144152/the-detective-1968)
The film belongs to a cluster of 1968 police pictures. The *Sight and Sound* critic Philip French grouped it with [Don Siegel](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-siegel)'s *Madigan* and Peter Yates' *Bullitt* as continuing the liberal tradition of 1966's *In the Heat of the Night*, with Sinatra's homicide investigator among the "sensible, sensitive men doing a difficult job with the minimum of force in a context of political interference and public indifference."[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/support-your-local-police-movie) Later critics have placed it in the emerging neo-noir movement; one retrospective review called it "one of the first true neo-noirs."[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detective)
## Reception
The *New York Times* was unimpressed with Douglas's "weak, unimaginative direction" and the film's mix of "the real and the fake." The *Los Angeles Times* called it a "tasteless" sequel to *Tony Rome*, noting only that it was filmed in New York instead of Miami. *Variety* called the film commercially "hot" but criticized Mann's "sprawling, untidy, badly-structured" script, especially twenty-four minutes of flashbacks in which Sinatra's character relives his "unstable married life."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE)
Roger Ebert, then the film critic of the *Chicago Sun-Times*, wrote that the film "contains a fine performance by Frank Sinatra, some very good scenes of police work, and not much else," calling it "a potentially excellent movie struggling to free itself from a heavy-handed script by Abby Mann and mediocre direction by Gordon Douglas." He compared Sinatra's weary, cynical cop to [Humphrey Bogart](https://www.edgepedia.org/humphrey-bogart) and praised the supporting work of Al Freeman Jr. and Horace McMahon, while faulting the long flashbacks and Mann's orations on slum housing, civil rights, and homosexuality.[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-detective-1968)
Commercially, the film was one of the top-grossing movies of 1968, according to TCM, which credits it with proving that Sinatra could still draw audiences and with fixing his late-career tough-guy persona.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1144152/the-detective-1968) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 100% Tomatometer from eight critics against a 46% audience score, a divergence one aggregator flags as a critics-versus-audience split.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detective) • [10](https://cinegraph.org/movies/the-detective-1968)
## Legacy: the road to Die Hard
After the film's success, Thorp wrote other police novels with less success until, after seeing *The Towering Inferno* (1974), he wrote a sequel, *Nothing Lasts Forever*, in which a retired Joe Leland hides inside a skyscraper fighting terrorists who have taken an office Christmas party hostage.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1144152/the-detective-1968) Attempts to film it with Sinatra failed, as did a plan to rework it as a *Commando* sequel for [Arnold Schwarzenegger](https://www.edgepedia.org/arnold-schwarzenegger); it was finally made as a stand-alone film with the lead renamed [John McClane](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-mcclane) and the title changed to *Die Hard* (1988), starring [Bruce Willis](https://www.edgepedia.org/bruce-willis).[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1144152/the-detective-1968) Because the sequel derived from the property behind *The Detective*, the *Die Hard* producers were contractually required to offer the McClane role to Sinatra first; he turned it down.[11](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/since-die-hard-is-favorite-had-to-watch-1968-frank-sinatra-movie-john-mcclane-based-on-the-detective)
## References
1. [The Detective (1968), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22698-THE-DETECTIVE)
2. [The Detective: Full Cast & Crew, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detective/cast-and-crew)
3. [The Detective, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/detective)
4. [The Detective (1968) Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062883/ratings/)
5. [The Detective (1968) by Greg Ferrara, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1144152/the-detective-1968)
6. [The Detective (1968), Filmsite](https://www.filmsite.org/detective.html)
7. [DVD Savant Review: The Detective](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1600dete.html)
8. [Support your local police movie, Sight and Sound (BFI)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/support-your-local-police-movie)
9. [The Detective movie review, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-detective-1968)
10. [The Detective, Cinegraph](https://cinegraph.org/movies/the-detective-1968)
11. [Since Die Hard Is a Favorite, I Had to Watch the 1968 Frank Sinatra Movie John McClane Is Based On, CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/since-die-hard-is-favorite-had-to-watch-1968-frank-sinatra-movie-john-mcclane-based-on-the-detective)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1960s films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license