We have improvised: the locations have stayed the same, and so has the intent of the individual scenes, but...'"[1] Bloomfield said that Anthony Perkins "had a ball" with his debauched character: "He brought a tremendous amount to it.

"[2] Anthony Perkins plays a blackmailer; Al Waxman, Maury Chaykin, Kenneth Welsh and Michael Ironside appear in minor roles.

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.

Spies and Sleuths called the movie "a muddle film that cannot untie its tangled skein of a plot, although a Perkins performance is always worth watching.

The trouble is, Bloomfield has not learned from the brilliant Point Blank that an oblique, difficult narrative can be gripping (even if one is only gradually aware of what's going on) — here the effect is wearingly muddlesome.