Deadly Surveillance

When Detective Rick Fender (Michael Ironside) collars a burglar in a posh apartment, he discovers the suite being used to store heroin. Police leave the stash untouched and wiretap the rooms. The lease-holder of the apartment is Carlos (Neil Kroetsch), a suspected cop-killer, but it's presently sublet to a beauty named Rachel (Susan Almgren), a confirmed cop-lover, who's having a fevered affair with Fender's old rival from the force, Detective Eddie Nickels (Christopher Bondy). Nickels vehemently proclaims Rachel's innocence (relatively speaking) and continues the hot sex even though unsavory Fender is monitoring every orgasm. Fender finally establishes that Rachel is a psychotic, the real cop-killer, fronting for Carlos's narcotics business. She murders Carlos as well (but spares loverboy Eddie arbitrarily just because she's out of bullets). The two detectives chase her down at a getaway plane.

The finale, with former enemies Nickels and Fender suddenly great pals, opts for a lighthearted buddy-cop attitude that doesn't match the stone-cold sober tone of the rest of the movie, which gets its meager boost from the question of Fender's motivations: is he an exceptionally dedicated cop or an obsessed voyeur? Long typecast as sadistic villains or hardened heroes, the dour Ironside gives his character a dangerous ambiguity that would have helped a picture with a more potent payoff. Paul Ziller's quirky, spare direction sets the film noir tone, leading-lady Almgren's nudity sets the agenda. David Carradine, who makes Michael Ironside look like Robin Williams, has a cliched bit as the tough department head who orders feuding Fender and Nickels to work together. Co-writer Hal Salwan later made his directorial debut with an offbeat romantic comedy also predicated on communications technology, DENISE CALLS UP (1995).

(Violence, nudity, sexual situations, adult situations, profanity.) leave a comment