STAGE REVIEW : ‘Detective Sanchez’ on the Case

Carlos Rodriguez Jr.’s colorful, cartoonish vision of ‘50s Los Angeles presents a vivid backdrop for Rene Rodriguez’s staging of his own mystery, “Detective Sanchez, the Ortiz Case.” At the Inner City Cultural Center, though, nothing comes close to the set’s vitality.

This piece of Chicano noir would seem to have real possibilities: Ricardo Lopez’s Sanchez battles the bottle to solve a nettlesome murder and free a Chicano kid unjustly accused of the crime.

The writer-director has the outlines of something, but not the guts, never lifting the material above the genre’s most standard devices (Maria Diaz’s femme fatale the most standard of all).

Rather than move with punchy action this material requires, things plod in slow motion and the adventure and message vaporize.

* “Detective Sanchez,” Inner City Cultural Center, 1308 S. New Hampshire, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Through April 19. $12; (818) 244-2449. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.