When the Las Vegas and Clark County police force is collectively referred to as "Metro," that’s the legacy of Ralph Lamb. As Clark County sheriff, he merged the two constabularies in order to cut down on jurisdictional disputes and other redundancies. He also created Metro’s SWAT team and brought the concept of a mobile crime lab to Sin City. During his tenure, Metro attained the reputation of acting as a hit squad to rub out troublesome mobsters (an image that Lamb admits did his authority no harm). It was an indictment for tax evasion – subsequently dismissed – that proved his downfall.
To date, no biopic of Sheriff Lamb has been made nor any book written. His sole film credit was as a technical advisor on the 1975 Kojak episode, "A House of Prayer, a Den of Thieves." In December 2004, Variety announced that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would be developing a film about Lamb’s colorful life. The project was initiated by none other than then-studio owner Kirk Kerkorian. He "suggested" it to Alex Yemenidjian (M-G-M’s CEO at the time) and the latter recruited Rush Hour producer Arthur Sarkissian.
The Lamb biopic-to-be took a promising turn when author Nicholas Pileggi (Wiseguy, Casino) was brought aboard as screenwriter. Vegas newsman Don Digilio, a veteran of the police beat, soon came aboard as a consultant. However, the project gained little traction. On April 8, 2007, Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke informed readers that Pileggi had "a new Las Vegas project": Ralph Lamb. Two years later, the R-J’s John L. Smith informed readers that – even though Lamb was ailing at the Mayo Clinic – the movie was still in the works.
In Hollywood, they call that being stuck in "Development Hell." It cannot help that Kerkorian resold M-G-M and a newly jobless Yemenidjian returned to the casino industry. (He currently runs the Tropicana Las Vegas.) Sarkissian has used the time to produce Rush Hour 3 and the obscure How to Rob a Bank.
In The First 100, Lamb told author A.D. Hopkins about a previous brush with Hollywood. "The first guy to come to me on something like that was Sam Peckinpah. He said we could make a great movie and he'd get Clint Eastwood to make it. We were on our way, had it kind of in outline, when he died."
Neither of the major Eastwood biographies mentions this, nor does If They Move … Kill ‘Em!, David Weddle’s authoritative biography of Peckinpah, whose health would have been extremely frail during the time frame Lamb describes. However, one detail supplied by Hopkins is pertinent: "The opening scenes could have been in the Mormon farming community of Alamo, where most of the Lamb family worked on ranches." This would have resonated with Peckinpah, who grew up in rural California and frequently featured pioneer life in his film and TV work. As for that Pileggi-penned Lamb movie, keep your fingers crossed. It may still get made ... someday.
You can read more about Sheriff Ralph Lamb in Policing Las Vegas by ex-cop and author Dennis N. Griffin, which chronicles the history of law enforcement in Las Vegas.
