Joe (Philip Denver) is a screenwriter who's had his work stolen out from under him and is then set up for a murder he didn't commit, all by a producer named Harry Goldsman, who he just happens to look almost exactly alike.  Joe decides to take revenge by kidnapping the producer, assuming his identity and bringing some quality and integrity back to the Hollywood film industry, while at the same time, living the life he feels has been stolen from him.  A life of money, importance and recognition...even if it is in someone else's name.  Unfortunately for Joe however, Harry's Russian auto mechanic and his right hand man at the office, Jeff Mannings (Cameron Haines), both sense that Harry doesn't seem like himself, and after a bit of spying, come to realize...they were right, which leads to a conclusion where at last, all is revealed.

This film was a bit of a mixed bag for me, but mostly I found it to be generally rather entertaining, and at times, even amusing.  Joe / Harry (Philip Denver) did a great job playing dual roles, even though he did play them in a rather similar manner.  The rest of the cast was equally good, and while there was an air of cheesiness about it all, it only served to add to the fun / noirish nature of the film.  Yes, this film was intended to be a modern film noir type of a film, but I actually think it would have worked even better had it been converted to black and white and done a bit more in that style.  The story elements are there to have pulled that off without trying to make it seem like it was trying to be a full on retro style noir film.  It could have worked quite well.  Still, it works pretty well as it is too, even though there are a few problems here and there.

One of the more notable characters in the film is the Russian auto mechanic Boris Mishken (Seth Correa).  He does the accent rather well and comes off as believable.  A bit cheesy, but still believable.  You could almost imagine that this guy was in the Russian mob before he came to America to open a garage.  The character was fun and well played, and while his part in the story didn't make a whole lot of sense, it didn't really matter all that much because it was a cool character.  I say his part didn't make a lot of sense because he was apparently tight with Harry Goldsman.  Now really, how many people are actually tight with their auto mechanic to the point where the mechanic would go into spy mode to find out what's going on?  Harry struck me as the kind of a guy who had no patience for the peons who he felt were beneath him, so I can't see him being all that tight with an auto mechanic.

What I liked about this film is that the story sort of winds and weaves its way around in a somewhat slow but methodical manner, and yet, it never becomes boring.  It almost seems like it could sort of tip over that edge into the void of boringness (is that actually a word?) now and then, but never quite does.  It manages to stay at least somewhat entertaining throughout, with some aspects of the film being more entertaining than others.  For instance, one thing I found particularly amusing was that the photo Joe had of Harry had been accidentally reversed when it was processed, so Joe ended up piercing the wrong ear when he went to add an earring to match the one Harry always wore.  That in and of itself was funny, but when he went to Harry's house and met up with his drunken wife, she noticed that the earring was in the wrong ear and started giving him crap about it being the "gay" ear, which I found highly amusing.

Technically, the film was ok.  It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad either.  The visual quality could have been better, and yet many of the shots were nicely set up and well executed.  The sound quality was decent throughout much of the film, and yet there were spots here and there where it could have been better.  The lighting was generally good, with all the scenes clearly visible, which had the unfortunately side effect of making the viewer realize how the visual quality of the film could have been better.  It's not horrible by any means, but yes, it could have been better if they had used a different camera.  The editing kept things moving along at a nice pace.  The film never dwells on any one scene long enough to become boring or to feel like it's starting to drag, which is good.

Overall, when you look at the problems and compare it to the quality of the story and the overall entertainment value, the result clearly falls on the side of my being able to recommend this film.  The story is rather fun and the threads of it all wind up in the same knot at the end.  Could it have used a bit more work here and there?  Sure it could have.  Does it really matter?  Not really.  As I've said many times, the real question at the end of any film is, "Did I enjoy it?", and the answer in this case is a definite yes.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can check out the film's website at http://www.deathofhollywood.com.