You can tell that "Double Deal" is a B-movie. At a little over one hour and a cast of mostly B-list actors, it's clearly meant as a second feature. However, it's a pretty good film regardless.When the story begins, Buzz Doyle (Richard Denning) arrives in town and soon ends up working for a guy who is trying to strike oil. But, oddly, the man's biggest rival is his very own sister and she seems willing to do just about anything to ensure that the well comes up dry. First, she tries to hire away Buzz and when he won't throw in his lot with her, she has him beaten. Is this the end of it? Nope...soon folks start dying.The film offers an excellent and unexpected twist ending. My only complaint is one of logistics...why would the killer bother to take Terry (Marie Windsor) to his place to kill her? Why not just kill her where he abducted her and be done with it? Oh, well...it ain't perfect...but it is still pretty good.By the way, if you don't recognize Denning, he played the Governor of Hawaii during the entire run of the original "Hawaii Five-O". He also starred as Lucille Ball's husband in the very successful radio show "My Favorite Husband"...the show that was later re-tooled into "I Love Lucy"...minus Denning, of course.

****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!

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.

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.