Billy Dee Williams is Detective Hamberger, New York’s smoothest-talking private eye, in Deadly Illusion. He solves high-stakes mysteries while punching out bad guys and bedding beautiful women. But when one of these women turns up dead, he’s under the gun to prove his innocence and uncover an all-powerful conspiracy involving both high fashion and international drug trafficking. Prolific genre director and New Bev favorite Larry Cohen was fired halfway through production, but his signature zeal and originality remains stamped on this fast-paced holiday urban noir, which oozes no small amount of sex and sleaze. Keep an eye out for the actor who epitomized NYC-sleaze, Joe Spinell, in the raucous opening scene.
