Lady in Cement was the sequel to Tony Rome (1967, see entry); both films were based on Marvin H. Albert’s private detective novels written under the pen name “Anthony Rome.” In between the two Miami, FL-based "Tony Rome" movies, the same production team—Twentieth Century-Fox, producer Aaron Rosenberg, director Gordon Douglas, and actor Frank Sinatra—made another film, this one based in New York City, called The Detective (1968, see entry). A third Tony Rome film, based on another Anthony Rome novel called My Kind of Game, was planned, according to the 5 June 1967 LAT and 14 June 1967 Variety, but never made.
       The 2 June 1967 DV announced that Albert would write the screenplay for his own novel, The Lady in Cement. Richard Breen, who scripted the earlier Tony Rome from Albert’s novel, had died in February 1967 before it went into production.
       As he did while filming Tony Rome in early 1967, Frank Sinatra performed nightly at the Fontainebleau Hotel’s La Ronde Room in Miami Beach, FL, while shooting Lady in Cement during the day, the 18 December 1967 DV reported. He opened 7 February 1968 for “the longest nitery engagement of his career—six weeks,” with “two performances nightly, six days a week.” All filming would take place nearby in Miami and Miami Beach, FL, beginning 19 February 1968, according to the 17 January 1968 Variety. To facilitate easy travel between Sinatra’s two jobs, the movie production converted the basement of the Fontainebleau into a film studio, where at least four sets were built, Aaron Rosenberg told the 21 February 1968 DV.
       Sammy Davis, Jr., who had co-starred with Sinatra in Gordon Douglas’s Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), was originally picked for the role of Tony Rome’s close friend and former partner, but bowed out due to other commitments, according to the 5 February 1968 DV. Sinatra gave the role to comedian Pat Henry, his opening act at the Fontainebleu. Los Angeles Rams football star Merlin Olsen also auditioned for a role, the 24 January 1968 Variety noted, but was apparently not involved in the film.
       The 28 February 1968 Variety mentioned that filming had begun two days earlier, after a delay caused by Sinatra’s bout with the flu, but according to a list of studio schedules in the 8 March 1968 DV, principal photography for Lady in Cement actually began on 4 March 1968.
       Articles in the 4 March 1968 DV and 6 March 1968 Variety described a squabble between Twentieth Century-Fox and the Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, FL. When Hialeah president Eugene Mori refused to allow Lady in Cement to be filmed there, the production moved to Gulfstream Park at Hallandale Beach, FL. Mori publicly criticized Gulfstream for hosting the film, saying: “We read the script of the movie, and it is a picture which portrays violence and underworld activity. We don’t feel the best image of racing would be served by having Hialeah, or any track, involved in such a movie.” The Gulfstream location scene was shot on 5 March 1968. A week earlier, the 29 February 1968 DV reported that 250 Florida schoolteachers, who were in the middle of a strike, were hired as extras to sit in Gulfstream’s stands behind Sinatra and actress Raquel Welch.
       Filming ended 5 April 1968, the 10 April 1968 Variety reported.
       Comedian Joe E. Lewis was hired for a small part. Frank Sinatra had portrayed Lewis in the 1957 film biography The Joker Is Wild (see entry).
       In one scene, actor Dan Blocker’s character sat in a motel room watching the television show Bonanza, whose theme played on the soundtrack. Blocker, who portrayed “Hoss Cartwright” on the popular program, was on hiatus during the Lady in Cement production. When Twentieth Century-Fox ran a full-page advertisement in the 6 November 1968 DV and other trade papers publicizing the film’s premiere that night at Hollywood, CA’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, it printed a photograph of Blocker manhandling Sinatra, with the words: “Hoss plays the heavy!”
       Critical reception was tepid. The 8 November 1968 LAT reported that the plot of Lady in Cement was “cumbersome without being rewardingly intricate,” and as with most sequels, “the law of diminishing returns is still in force.” The 21 November 1968 NYT called it such “a perfect blending of material with milieu that the movie’s extraordinary vulgarity and sloppiness can almost be cherished for themselves, like widescreen graffiti.”