Twenty Plus Two

Confusing but entertaining yarn with David Janssen trying to solve the case of a young girl who went missing years before.

Brad Dexter plays a movie star who, as usual, gives off enough vibes to make you suspect he's a rat. His secretary is bumped off, and since she seemed to have an interest in the missing person's case, enter Janssen. Jeanne Crain plays Janssen's old flame. Dina Merrill plays Crain's friend, who ultimately becomes an important part of the case. Everything gets wrapped up in the final ten minutes or so, but it's a bit of a mess getting to that point.

There is some good work by others, including William Demarest as a drunken former reporter who had written about the case, and Jacques Aubuchon, as a mysterious guy who wants Janssen to find his missing brother. It was a little odd seeing Aubuchon in a suit, since I was used to him walking around in native garb as Chief Urulu in "McHale's Navy." Silent screen star Gertrude Astor plays a dead body.

Worth a look, just to see Jeanne Crain in one of the tightest black dresses ever made.

This certainly should not be classified as a real "thriller" but, as a mystery film it was a decent watch. I was intrigued to hear the story behind special investigator Tom Adler's (David Janssen) American born geisha girl Nicki Kovacs (Dina Merrill). The story has flashback scenes to when Tom Adler was a lieutenant stationed in Japan when he meets Nicki Kovacs at a Japanese nightclub.. Nicki is one of the private dancers/geisha girls at the nightclub who provides the sombre looking Tom with an ear to listen to his woes, and a couch to sleep on overnight. By morning Tom has fallen in love with the mysterious Nicki but he loses touch with his war time crush and over the following decades he cannot get her beautiful mysterious face out of his dreams and thoughts.

Do not expect any James Bond or Mike Hammer physical action scenes as David Janssen is not your action Jackson type of detective. No, Tom Adler is more a wussy heartbroken type of detective who is good at his job at finding missing persons to which his firm gets a handsome reward for finding long lost loved ones. In this film, ironically enough Tom Adler is having a difficult time finding his own long lost love, his American born geisha girl Nicki Kovacs.

No spoiler here. Suffice to say that Twenty Plus Two is a decent mystery film with a decent ending to which I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 rating.

The producers were able to assemble a usually fine cast for this mystery movie, but the problem is, they all really ham it up so much that it almost becomes laughable. The worst hams are Jeanne Crain, Agnes Moorehead, and William Demarast, but Janssen does his share of chewing up the scenery, too. The mysterious plot is somewhat interesting but another problem is that the script just calls for these hams to stand, sit, or sometimes even lay around talking, talking, and talking even more. There is very little action here, just a bunch of verbalization that sometimes goes on and on. After seeing the scene when Janssen visits Moorehead, who is over the top with her hamminess, I concluded that the producers of TV's "Bewitched" must have seen it and said - oh yeah, we just found our outrageous Endora.

I still give this six stars, only because it is interesting to watch - and you really can't turn it off, waiting to see just which of these usually good actors it going to out ham the other ones !

In Hollywood, Julia Joliet is murdered. She's a small time secretary answering fan mail for a movie star. What catches the attention of private investigator Tom Alder is that she has collected clippings from the Doris Delaney case. Delaney was a missing heiress and her parents spared no expense to find her with no success. Alder decides to follow the clue.

I generally like the hard-boiled detective style and this has an intriguing start. I don't particularly like his meandering investigation. It seems a little slow and I'm never sure about his moves. Then it loses me in a flashback. The problem is that the flashback happens without much context since the audience isn't shown the old photographs. She's also a little older than I expect. The case is over a decade old but it may need to double that. It is also very coincidental. It's unlikely that he would be investigating the case without any pictures at the start. The whole thing is a house of cards built on a knife's edge.

"Twenty Plus Two" is an unusual film in that I re-started it about 20 minutes into the story. This is because although I was watching, I was distracted by other things....and this is NOT a film to watch when there are any distractions! It's complicated...and still worth seeing.

David Janssen plays Tom Alder, a man much like his TV character Richard Diamond, the detective. But Alder is not quite as smooth and isn't quite as irresistible to the ladies...though two women in the film clearly adore him.

Alder makes his living finding lost people. One old case that has been unsolved for well over a decade involved a rich young lady who just disappeared. The film shows the steps Alder takes to eventually find this woman and solve the mystery of her disappearance.

While I'd quickly admit that Janssen's acting is sometimes a bit wooden, I like him in his various shows and movies. He's quite good here and the story is good but almost needs a map to help you keep up with all the twists and turns. My only complaint, and it's minor, is that too many things seem coincidental...but this is a small matter. Well worth seeing.