The First Deadly Sin (1980) on Netflix
A man is killed with an ice axe in Manhattan. Sergeant Edward Delaney, near retirement, works the case while his wife Barbara is hospitalized with a kidney ailment.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb5.9/102,577 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes63%
Trailer
Plot summary
Sergeant Edward Delaney is an NYPD homicide detective. Bernard Gilbert is attacked with an ice axe outside a church on West 81st Street in Manhattan, and the coroner, Dr. Ferguson, shows Delaney that the fatal wound was made with a round object. Delaney's wife Barbara is at Mother Cabrini Hospital recovering from emergency surgery; complications from her kidney stones led her surgeon, Dr. Bernardi, to remove the organ. Delaney throws himself into the murder case even as friends and supervisors tell him the department's priorities lie elsewhere. He consults Christopher Langley, an Arms and Armor curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about what weapon could leave such a wound. A similar attack on West 79th Street shows the same wound patterns, and others have taken place across the city.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The First Deadly Sin (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The First Deadly Sin was originally to be directed by Roman Polanski, but Columbia Pictures dropped him after statutory rape charges were brought against him, and Brian G. Hutton took over once Polanski fled to France.
SPOILER
The film changed the ending of Lawrence Sanders's novel, in which killer Daniel Blank died of dehydration on an upstate New York bluff called Devil's Needle; the replacement was called a less subtle approach better in tune with the film.- The film gave Bruce Willis his first screen appearance: he plays an extra who walks past Frank Sinatra's Detective Delaney in a restaurant, almost unrecognizable because a hat covers his eyes.
- For the film's network television showing, Frank Sinatra added a spoken voice-over to the conclusion, which writer William L. DeAndrea said changed the meaning of the final images completely.
