Double Deal

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.

Richard Denning (Buzz) rides into a small oil town and heads to the nearest bar looking for work. Bingo! That was easy. He's got a job. Seemingly, he is an engineering expert capable of turning a profit for an oil rig with a lame past as well as providing muscle against sabotage. It's a good CV! He eyes up Marie Windsor (Terry) on their first meeting and you sense that love is in the air. He is not subtle about it - ha ha! Well, there is a bad element in town, of course, in the form of ruthless businesswoman Fay Baker (Lilly) and she has her eyes on the oil rig for herself. Well, some bodies pile up and there are murders to solve.

It's an alright film to watch, made interesting by the role of Fay Baker. She is excellent and very memorable as the town's top girl. You don't mess with her. We needed more scenes with her. Marie Windsor starts the film off in a hard-edged manner but seems to soften towards the end, and you look forward to the showdown that you know will come at some point between Baker and Windsor. The audience is just waiting for that Joan Collins v Linda Evans Dynasty catfight. As the film is set in the world of oilfields, it will make you think of the Dallas/Dynasty days.

Set against this is the very dreadful character of the town's drunk lawyer Taylor Holmes (Corpus). Yeah, we get it - he's drunk all the time. Why are there so many scenes with him being drunk and unfunny? One scene really tests the patience when he is making a meal with his stupid pet monkey. No need for this scene at all - it is not endearing as it is obviously supposed to be. Well, I guess he is relevant to the story. By the way, this film has a twist that I guarantee you will not expect.

"I'll Oilwells love you" sang the great Dolly Parton on one of her 1960s albums.

I don't know why, but I didn't enjoy this film. Kudos to those who did and found more in it than I did.

Double Deal from 1950 is a B movie that stars two actors I really like, Richard Denning and Marie Windsor. The story concerns a brother-sister fight; the sister, Lilly (Fay Baker) inherited three wells from dad, while Reno (Carleton Young) inherited one, and so far, it hasn't produced anything.

Reno killed Lilly's fiance in a fight; thus the adversarial relationship. Lilly is a powerful woman, and she wants Reno's well. She doesn't care how she gets it.

Reno is killed, and Terry (Windsor) inherits the well. She hires Buzz (Denning), who has experience with wells, to bring in this one. The two have an obvious attraction to one another.

Double Deal contains sexual innuendo, though you have to read between the lines. Reno and Terry seem to have been sleeping together. Lilly is either married to or shacked up with a man (James Griffith - kind of a poor man's Zachary Scott). However, it's evident Lilly is sleeping around to get matters concerning the oil business going her way.

The drunken attorney (Taylor Holmes) seems like he's a homeless bum, except he isn't - he has an exotic monkey for a pet, lives in a house, and still conducts business. The monkey, Pipi, at one point emerges a hero.

I love noirs, Denning is rugged and handsome, Windsor a talented actress, and Pipi adorable, but I just couldn't get into this film.

Marie Windsor and Richard Denning as "Buzz" pair up to bring in her oil well against the forces at be.Great quickie with actors who have all been in heavier fare.Cheesy dialogue,fist fights,gunplay,sexual tension and plot twists keep this trash-daddy moving at a clip pace in glorious black & white.At times the actors seemed amused as they delivered their lines.Dark and serious oil field trash film see Stark Fear with Beverly Garland.

The material here would have made a fine noir had it been made by a visual stylist; and coming from the Mecca of noir, RKO, I'm surprised at the straightforward filming. After all, many icons of noir are already present—the lonely bus, the seedy bar, the penniless male lead, and, of course, the queen of slutty vamps, Marie Windsor. Except here, she's playing a good girl, of all things, a role a thousand lesser actresses could have handled.

Nonetheless, it's a good little potboiler that manages to avoid many clichés of its kind. Everybody's conniving to get hold of an oil well that has gusher potential, including good guy Denning. But I'm especially impressed by Fay Baker who makes a scary hard-nosed villainess, plotting as ruthlessly as the men. The cast itself is full of colorful characters, especially Taylor Holmes who can't pass up anything that's spelled a-l-c-o-h-o-l. The script also includes a good surprise ending I didn't see coming. All in all, the 70-minutes is better than most programmers of the time, even if the great Marie Windsor is wasted.