Double Deal (1950)

hyped garbage

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

****SPOILERS*** it's when unemployed oil engineer Buzz Doyle, Richard Denning, buzzes into Richfield City on a Greyhound bus he expects to find some work in that oil town only to get himself involved in a family squabble between Lilly and her brother Reno Sabastian, Fay Baker & Carleton Young, over what else oil! It's Lilly and her lover boy boyfriend the oily Walter Karnes James Griffith, who want to grab Reno's oil well in that if it doesn't start pumping out the black gold within 45 days she can buy him out. As for Buzz he gets involved with bar-girl Terry Miller, Marie Windsor, who's moonlights as Reno's personal secretary at the oil well as well as having an affair with him. It doesn't take long for Terry to fall for the handsome Buzz whom she convinces to stay at Richfield City and work for Reano as his new oil engineer. This has Lilly and Karnes get a number of local goons to make trouble at Reno's well to keep his oil well from going into operation in time before the fore-closer order from the bank kicks in. It also has Lilly drop the oil drenched looking Kerans in order to hit on to the tall blond and handsome Buzz who in fact wants to have nothing to do with her. It's when Buzz finds Reno murdered in his hotel room that he realizes that the fix or frame is in to get him out of the way and have Lilly have a free hand in his oil well and the land that it's on! Which in fact she's been illegally pumping the oil from her wells under her late brother Reno's property.****SPOILERS*** It's late in the movie that the real man behind all this killing and oil manipulating make his appearance and that's when the monkey, Pipi, the real hero in the movie goes into action. With Buzz already framed, and later exonerated, for one murder that of Reno Sabastian he's now framed for a second one, that of Walter Karnes, and soon to be in line for a third frame-up that of his lover and partner in the oil well Terry Miller! But it's the cute little monkey Pipi's the pet of old oil prospector C.D Corpus Mills, Taylor Holmes, who saved both Buzz and Terry's lives and most of all,after those of us watching were about to fall asleep, the movie as well!

Now this film does have its faults and plot holes - an able-bodied able-minded engineer in post-war America (Richard Denning as "Buzz") who is living life as a drifter in need of a job, an alcoholic lawyer, not practicing for years who doesn't have the money for a drink or a smoke but DOES have a home and plenty of food AND an exotic pet, and plenty of people turning up murdered and yet the police who are apparently not corrupt can't figure out who has done what but really do enjoy slapping suspects around.The story revolves around a feuding brother (Reno) and sister (Lilly). Lilly inherited three oil wells, and brother Reno inherited just one, yet Lilly wants Reno's well too because Reno shot Lilly's fiancé in an argument over gambling. It was judged a justifiable shooting, but considering how poor the legal system works in this town, maybe Lilly has a point with her legal dissatisfaction. Buzz agrees to help Reno bring in his well...in a small town where the sister is known to cause trouble of both the economic and physical kind for anybody who gets in her way? In 1950 why didn't he just get a job with an oil company? Because then we'd have no story.This film is very sexually provocative for 1950, considering the production code was still in full force. My assumption was that Terry and Reno were husband and wife - they are in and out of each other's hotel rooms without knocking and just give off that impression. But they are not married. The conclusions are unspoken but inevitable. Also, wealthy vindictive sister Lilly seems to be married to somebody who has lost her interest and respect. Well, he (James Griffith as Walter) has lost her interest and respect, but they are not married either although Walter is apparently living at Lilly's home. Again the conclusions are unspoken but inevitable. Also, Lilly seems to be laying every man in town who is involved in the oil business. This is apparently how she keeps them under her thumb - that and money. Don't these guys ever compare notes or do they care? Again, quite sexually frank for 1950.Don't let the clichés in the opening moments of the film fool you - things are not as they appear. I'd recommend this one as a good but not great film noir.

How many B-films start with a stranger hopping off a bus in a lonely town, sidling into the local bar, sliding up to the femme fatale, and getting up to his neck in trouble? In this version, the hero (Richard Denning) google-eyes Marie Windsor's frame, breaks up a crooked dice game, and finds himself embroiled in an internecine oil-wildcatting war. It's a potboiler, but very watchable thanks to a decent plot, sharp dialog, and especially the offbeat characters and tried-and-true B-list performers who play them. Unfortunately, like most low-rent films of the time, the visual quality is only a couple of notches above TV, and most scenes are pretty static until the breakneck climax.Miss Windsor gets a softer role than usual here; it's Fay Baker who scores the man-eating ice-queen role. Best of all are Jim Hayward as a world-weary bartender (talking like a Ben Hecht creation), and Tom B. Henry (of the formidable proboscis) as a hardboiled but fair sheriff. Oh, and a pet monkey plays deus ex machina.

This movie should have been titled "Triple Deal". It has a dozen plot twists, some very surprising sexual overtones, and a totally unexpected ending. This is the kind of perfect "B" that will never be made again. Richard Denning, Marie Windsor, Taylor Holmes, and James Griffith - all reliable "B" players we have learned to appreciate over the years. It is movies like this that make us mourn the studio system.