Doble trato

My review was written in December 1983 after viewing the film on Cinemax.

Filmed in 1981, "Double Deal" is an unappealing Aussie suspense film unreleased theatrically in this country but appearing on pay-cable via the Samuel Goldwyn Co. Despite its use of Dolby stereo sound and widescreen Panavision lensing, dull picture is not a strong enough piece for theatrical use.

B-film story has fashion model and designer Christina (Angela Punch-McGregor) bored with her four-year marriage to cool businessman Peter Stirling (Louis Jourdan) and finding kicks with a young prowler (Warwick Comber).

Young couple spontaneously wreck her house's interior and take off on the open road for a mini-crime spree, dressing in clown outfits to rob a remote store on the highway. Back home, the police investigate Christina's disappearance, which the prowler later turns into a kidnapping (half-consensual), demanding a stiff ransom.

Final reel features several predictable plot twists leading to a failed attempt at an ironicale ending., revolving around Stirling's $1,000,000-plus Empress of Glengarry opal. Languorously-paced film lacks the style fo its B-film forebears, with filmmaker Brian Kavanagh substituting pointless cross-cutting during the first reel that delays the narrative and opposes viewer involvement.

Topbilled Jourdan is suave and urbane in his walkthrough while the talented Aussie star Punch-McGregor is miscast as a beautiful cigar-smoking mannequin. Playing his unnamed role exclusively in silver motorcycle garb, Comber is silly. Tech credits are okay, but contribute no atmosphere to this would-be "thriller".

Double Deal is a tight plotted out of the realm Oz films, which to be honest, I really love. It's sexy, dangerous, thrilling, and so perfectly cast, with great French import Jordan, at his baddest best. Angela Punch Mcgregor has never looked so hot. She's a bored rich housewife married to player Jordan. A dark, handsome and little menacing stranger (Comber), walks into her life. She goes off with him, where they rob country banks, Comber becoming more menacing but intriguing as you really don't know what to make of his inner self. Also he and Mcgregor have concocted a plan of kidnapping and ransom, for Jordan to pay a healthy amount to get his loved one back. But honestly there's no love between this unhappy couple. The less said about this one the better. Yes there are some some jaw dropping twists in this and this one's better than a lot of other oz films. It's sad this one hasn't got the exposure it so rightly deserves. The last scene is one of depressing irony, if that was one of inevitable fate. Really this is one of those movie's with it's own style and chooses to walk it's own beat, if somehow, not keeping with it's own rhythm of Australian type films, but it's a rhythm I love.

I sought this film for quite a long time. Finally, I own a copy and have watched it twice. It was worth the wait.

Peter Sterling (the incomparable Louis Jourdan) and his wife Christine (Angela Punch McGregor) are bored with the state of their lives, particularly with one another. Christine is especially bored and longs for adventure and excitement. After all, Peter is a butterfly collector, and Christine feels like one of his pretty possessions.

Excitement comes in the form on a stranger, a nameless young man (Warwick Comber). Christine gets adventure and excitement, all right--and much more. The ending provides a twist that is brilliant and unexpected.

Brian Kavanagh wrote and directed this film, and his craft is evident. Kavanagh is a published novelist, so his ability to create intriguing, thrilling, engaging, and entertaining stories and characters is well known.

If you can locate a copy of "Double Dare," by all means grab it. You will not be disappointed.