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".
