Deadly Companion (also known as Double Negative) is a 1980 Canadian thriller film based on the novel The Three Roads by Ross Macdonald. Plot Michael Taylor, played by Michael Sarrazin, is tormented by his sheer lack of memory concerning the night his wife was found brutally killed. Michael's girlfriend Paula (Susan Clark) helps him attempt to make sense of it all. Anthony Perkins plays a blackmailer; Al Waxman, Maury Chaykin, Kenneth Welsh and Michael Ironside appear in minor roles. Several cast members of the Canadian comedy show SCTV appear in this film, all playing small dramatic roles. (Director George Bloomfield had directed SCTV from 1977 through 1979, and brought the cast into the fold.) John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara (her second film), and Dave Thomas (his film debut) all have minor or bit parts; of the SCTV players, only O'Hara is in more than one scene, and Levy is visible for less than five seconds. A similar flock of SCTV cast members had small roles in Bloomfield's previous feature Nothing Personal, which was released just six weeks earlier than Deadly Companion. Some later video releases of the film misleadingly give some or all of the SCTV cast top billing. In the actual film credits, no SCTV member is billed higher than 11th. Cast Michael Sarrazin as Michael Taylor Susan Clark as Paula West Anthony Perkins as Lawrence Miles Howard Duff as Lester Harlen Kate Reid as Mrs. Swanscutt Al Waxman as Dellassandro Elizabeth Shepherd as Frances Kenneth Welsh as Dr. Klifter John Candy as John Michael Ironside as Edgar Production A 1979 article in The Globe and Mail on the film's production revealed that the script process was chaotic, saying that the film was "directed by George Bloomfield from a script by three Toronto writers who have adapted a Ross McDonald novel. The cast is in turn adapting the work of the three writers. 'This is one of those things that's in progress,' Miss Clark says, plonking herself on the floor in the corridor, 'so it's a big question mark. The three writers seemed to be coming from three different places. We have improvised: the locations have stayed the same, and so has the intent of the individual scenes, but...'" Bloomfield said that Anthony Perkins "had a ball" with his debauched character: "He brought a tremendous amount to it. I suspect that Tony was a person who