Movies for Readers: The First Deadly Sin

I'm going to reach way back into movie history (1980) for this week's Movies for Readers contribution. The First Deadly Sin was, I'm pretty sure, the first of several Lawrence Sanders crime thrillers that I would eventually read, and the book is such a page-turner that I still remember it very well after all these years. 

The movie adaptation stars Frank Sinatra (in a very good performance), Faye Dunaway (whose character barely gets out of her hospital bed), James Whitmore, and Brenda Vaccaro.  (And those of you with really sharp eyes might even spot Bruce Willis in his very first film role. Hint: he's coming in a bistro door that Sinatra is exiting.)

Rather than an official trailer (which I can't find), I'm posting this vivid clip from near the beginning of the movie. The way it's cut and edited reminds me of Hitchcock's direction, but the director of The First Deadly Sin was Brian G. Hutton.

Movies for Readers No. 13