Deadly Duo (1962) User Reviews

I liked it a lot more than i should have

[bensonmum2 · 6/10 · 1 August 2021]

Attorney Preston Morgan (Craig Hill) is hired by a very wealthy woman to travel to Acapulco to collect her grandson and bring him back to her. But when Morgan meets the boy's mother, Sabena (Marcia Henderson), he has a change of heart regarding his assignment. Complicating matters is Sabena's twin sister. She sees this as her opportunity to strike it rich - regardless of who gets hurt.

I completely understand that Deadly Duo is not what I'd generally call a good movie. In fact, it's got a load of problems, including: Craig Hill's acting, the Mexican accents, logic, the lack of real Mexican locations, and a look and feel of a 60s-era sitcom. But, there's just something about it that I found oddly appealing. First, there are a few plot twists that I enjoyed. This isn't Oscar caliber writing, but there are still some fine moments. Second, Marcia Henderson is very good in the roles of Sabena and her sister. She has a definite presence that works. And third, the scheming on the part of the twin and her husband. How on earth did they think they'd get away with it? Good stuff.

While Deadly Duo probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, I found it weirdly and surprisingly enjoyable. My rating may seem generous, but I rate primarily on entertainment value. And I was definitely entertained.

6/10.

Pretty bad but sort of fun

[Handlinghandel · 5/10 · 27 August 2007]

Most of this movie takes place in Acapulco. It's not that we don't believe that ... Exactly ...

The sets look for all the world, though, like sets from TV series of the time. And wait! Not that Bette Davis and Olivia De Havilland hadn't done it already. But isn't the good twin/evil twin reminiscent of "I Dream Of Jeannie" and "Bewitched"? The sisters, both played by Marcia Henderson, really don't look alike. Yes, they are the same actress. But the evil sister wears a long platinum wig and presents herself so differently, no one would think them related. Unless, of course, there were constant dialogue commenting on their remarkable similarity of appearance.

Craig Hill plays a California lawyer down on his luck. He is hired to do something moderately dishonorable, down in Mexico. He's not bad. He looks good in a brief bathing suit and he's filmed hat way for quite a bit. He is often filmed (fully clothed) from the back, walking, though. This was unflattering to several major female stars in the 1940s. And it does him no favors.

This is not great film making. It's moderately entertaining. And the cars in it are fantastic! It's not one of those projects in which they all are from the same company. The then-Big Three are all represented; and we get to see some real beauties.

Nice guy meets an evil twin

[bkjellstrand · 4/10 · 30 July 2007]

Saw this movie on TV recently; not much to get excited about. The actors seemed charming, especially supporting actor Robert Lowery, who has a resemblance to Clark Gable or Cesar Romero. It seems like the entire movie was shot inside a single Hollywood sound stage. Marcia Henderson, whom I have never heard of, played two characters who were twin sisters: one nice, the other mildly evil. The evil sister's part was overacted to say the least, but perhaps that was what the script called for. The movie took place entirely in Acapulco, Mexico, but it sure could have used a few more Acapulco scenes. i agree with an earlier commenter: what happened to Craig Hill? He had leading-man good looks, but he seems to have disappeared from view after Whirlybirds.

Pretty Good Little Cheapo

[dougdoepke · 29 September 2019]

Smoothly done crime flick. By 1961, 60-minute b&w B-movies were largely a relic of the past. But this little indie with B-movie vets like LeBorg and Lowery show that the skills still survive. So what's the deal with the twin sisters, nice girl Sabena and the vixenish Dara, both played by actress Henderson. They're so alike, yet unalike. Then there's struggling attorney Morgan (Hill) who's hired by rich woman to fly to Acapulco to seal a deal where suddenly widowed Sabena gives up her little son for a half-million dollars. At same time, Morgan will get a fat attorney's fee he badly needs. But once there, Morgan meets Dara and her sinister husband Jay (Lowery) and the charming Sabena. Understandably, widowed Sabena doesn't want to give up son for any money amount even to her mother. However, the grasping Dara and Jay have other plans as they hover in the background. Meanwhile, attorney Morgan's beginning to question the ethics of his mission. Thus tensions rise and we wonder how will things turn out.

Henderson really scores, especially as kittenish Dara. In times past, production would have had to split the screen to get the same performer into the same scene. Here, however, technology has apparently triumphed since no split screens are sealed over by such gimmicks as doors jambs or wall ends. Thus the twins are an excellent effect all to Henderson's thespian advantage. Production also does a good job of inserting stock shots of Acapulco into studio scenery, though I did tire of Morgan driving the same car along the same driveway about ten times over. Anyway, it's a good little B-flick with interesting plot, plausible performances, and smooth directing. So cheapos can still entertain.

Sluggish crime drama is strictly second rate stuff...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 30 July 2007]

Strictly a low-budget programmer, DEADLY DUO is a deadly boring attempt as a detective story involving twin sisters--one good, one bad, naturally. It's full of expository dialog, especially the first half-hour which sets up the entire situation in exposition--then drifts off into the main story with no distinction whatsoever.

Performances are mostly sub-standard--especially MARCIA HENDERSON as the twin sisters (one blonde, one brunette), and especially ROBERT LOWERY, looking a far cry from the young actor whose career began in the 1940s with small roles in big films. CRAIG HILL, as the lawyer on a mission for a wealthy client, gives the only credible performance in the whole film.

The story moves along at a crawl, never establishing any crackling tension or sparkling dialog--and hampered by a poor child performance from PETER OLIPHANT.

Summing up: Dreary to sit through--no tension at all. CRAIG HILL never did go on to full-fledged stardom but fit the requirements for leading man roles.

The Twix Was Split

[iquine · 7/10 · 11 July 2019]

(Flash Review)

A pair of fashionable identical twins have their unique bond challenged. By what you may ask? A pile of money. Told straightforward and pleasingly yet with sitcom level cinematography. A wealthy grandmother wants to get custody of her grandson, from her newly widowed daughter in-law, to raise him to run the family business. She hires a young lawyer to present the mother with a large sum offer to give up custody since the grandmother assumes she can offer him a better life than living in Acapulco without a job. The mother refuses the offer but her twin sister and bankrupt husband aren't about to let that pile of cash disappear. Will money separate their special bond? Fluffy, easy yet totally watchable with fun 60s styles.

"Five hundred thousand dollars is half a million."

[boblipton · 5/10 · 19 January 2022]

Irene Tedrow is a rich and powerful woman. Unhappily, her son married Marcia Henderson, an entertainer in a sister act; Miss Tedrow did not approve. The son died, but not before they had a son. Now she hires Craig Hill, who was almost disbarred for his former partner's fronting for the Mob, to go down to Acapulco and get her to accept half a million dollars for the boy. She says no. This annoys her twin sister -- also played by Miss Henderson, and her husband, Robert Lowery, who see a way to collect the money themselves, with a spot of forgery and murder.

It's an okay very cheap B movie produced by the imitable Robert Kent, writer of more than ninety B movies and producer of more than forty. Mr. Hill suggests Robert Cummings, and Miss Henderson has some fun playing two roles in two wigs. Lowery plays his role as lazy and querulous. The result is a decent time-waster.

Marcia Henderson & Marcia Henderson

[TheFearmakers · 7/10 · 9 March 2024]

From George Montgomery to Rock Hudson, actress Marcia Henderson usually played the good girl to a good man... and she's a good girl here too... widowed to a rich man without caring about anything but her son... and the titular DEADLY DUO twist is, she has an identical twin sister, also played by Henderson...

The first is brunette and sweet as pie, the other's bad and blonde and, married to a lowlife yet charming former nightclub owner, they're all being checked out by lawyer Craig Hill who, sent for the rich grandmother's custody of the son, is actually the lead character despite Marcia's double role...

Her best moment is playing the blonde sister acting like while disguised as the good sister, providing an evil glint within a docile grin, while Hill... not a great actor but passable here... doesn't catch on...

And why should he since Marcia Henderson is great in the double role, playing both sisters like completely separate humans... as is her job as a actress, ending a b-movie career with a literal double-whammy in a low-budget neo noir that, lacking action and full of dialogue, remains an intriguing, visual page-turner.

With a plot like this, you would expect it to be a lot more exciting than it actually is.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 3 April 2016]

The problem with "Deadly Duo" is that the script idea is very good and should have been the basis of a nice film noir drama. Unfortunately, the film just isn't that interesting and feels quite flat.

When the film begins, a rich old lady (familiar TV character actress Irene Tedrow) meets with a young lawyer and offers him a very enticing proposition. It seems that her son married some lady a few years back and since then, he died and she has been left with a kid...her grandkid. If he can manage to convince the daughter-in- law to give her custody, she'll pay the lawyer a bundle.

When the lawyer visits the mother, she seems like a decent person and a perfectly good mother. Not surprisingly, she won't sell her kid and tells the lawyer to take a hike. But, the lady has a nearly identical sister and she and her sleazy boyfriend concoct a plan to kill her and make it look like an accident. Then the new guardian, this sister, could sell the kid!! What's next? See the film.

I am NOT saying this is a bad film but the suspense wasn't handled properly. The ending came too quickly, seemed too pat and wasn't entirely satisfying.

Oh what a tangled web, and the deceivers get deceived.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 11 March 2022]

When a powerful American business woman (Irene tedrow in a rare major role) decides that she wants custody of her grandchild, she sends attorney Craig Hill down to try to get her mother, Marcia Henderson, to sign over custody with promise of a settlement as long as she never sees the boy again. Henderson has a twin sister (herself) who has come to stay with her after the death of the husband, and the twin begins to plot with her own husband, Robert Lowery, plans to get her sister to sign over the custody then kill her so she'll get the money. But Hill is one step ahead of the evil duo, as is the sister and watching this unfold is a lot of fun.

You don't need Bette Davis times two, or Olivia de Havilland or even Hayley Mills to create Intrigue in a dual role, and Henderson, a young ingenue in the 1950's, is quite good at being both good and bad, although it's easy to really see through the bad sister. She's a blonde, and the good sister's a brunette, and simply because she works as an entertainer, the Mother-in-law she's never met assumes the worst about her. This low budget film noir keeps the viewer intrigued throughout, even though it's obvious that the bad guys will get caught. It's just fun to watch them get over confident in their schemes and then be exposed.

Veteran Lowery looks very sinister from the moment you see him, and Tedrow is definitely a force to be reckoned with, playing a part that you would likely see Judith Anderson or Agnes Moorehead play. Usually Tedrow played secretaries or housekeepers, and sometimes loving relatives, but she's quite good as a woman who needs a lesson in finding out the facts before she makes assumptions. There are also some very good Mexican actors here, and they get very good material, particularly the handsome actor playing the hotel bellhop who is very loyal to the good sister.

In-Laws And Outlaws...

[azathothpwiggins · 3 August 2021]

When a wealthy industrialist dies, his widow Sabena Spence (Marcia Henderson) is left with nothing due to her unseemly lifestyle. Her mother-in-law goes so far as to hire an attorney named Pres Morgan (Craig Hill) to get Sabena to sign over her parental rights, so the man's son can be raised by his grandmother. Sabena will then be left with a portion of the inheritance, with the boy receiving the rest.

In the midst of this family drama, Sabena's identical twin sister, Dara (Henderson) enters the picture. Dara isn't as sweet and honest as Sabena. In fact, she's arrived for a reason, and intends to make this whole situation work in her favor. She also happens to be a conniving, unscrupulous egomaniac!

Let the fun begin.

DEADLY DUO is an effective crime drama with a nice twist at the end. While Dara's appearance takes this movie in a rather obvious direction, it's still a lot of fun getting there! Ms. Henderson does an admirable job playing the polar-opposite sisters...

A wig and a prayer; or The bland leading the bland

[lor_ · 27 March 2024]

It's quite obvious that Deadly Dull is the proper title for this United Artists release, which IMDb informs us played on many a double bill from the same studio's hit in Britain, "Dr. No". That fact reminds me of how B-movies also served as so-called chasers - designed to help empty theatres (as patrons like me would sit through show after show) in the days when double features flourished. After watching the magnetic Sean Connery dominate the screen as Bond, it must have been hard to adjust to staring at the permanent nonentity Craig Hill walking through his role in such an uneventful co-feature.

Over 60 years later, it was distracting to watch the "actress playing twins" gimmick - looking for any mismatching in the shots processed to have lead Marcia Henderson on screen twice at once, or the obvious double seen from the back of the head in other easier to shoot and process shots. Two wigs to differentiate the sisters are glaringly fake.

The plodding story is relentlessly uninteresting, leading to a busier (but way too late) final reel of contrived and unconvincing plot twists leading to a fake wholesome happy ending.

Both Hill and Henderson represent poor casting -neither capable of arousing or sustaining an audience's interest for an entire movie. And even more obvious, the rented T-Bird Craig drives in the fake Acapulco setting constantly upstages our yawn of a hero, quickly becoming the actual star of the picture.

I Saw This Movie At The Capitol Theater In Newark, NJ

[rusher-3 · 7 June 2005]

And all that I can remember about it is that it starred Craig Hill (Kenneth Tobey's sidekick in "Whirlybirds") and I believe some of it took place in pre-Castro Cuba (although I could be wrong about that). Great memory, huh? I could swear it was more like 1959 instead of 1962, but in retrospect, what's a coupla years? (lol). I remember Craig Hill as a very attractive leading man-type who got zippo publicity in this country, but just scanning over his IMDb resume he has appeared in an incredible amount of films and TV work. How could someone who was so much in children's' eyes in the 1950's (i.e. Whirlybirds) manage to remain so anonymous, yet appear in so many different projects? Maybe I should write to the guy on Turner Classic Movies (hey, he was just talking about Kenneth Tobey tonight) and ask him.