- A Vietnam vet returns home to his wife. His home is there, but his wife isn't. When the authorities prove to be no help, he cuts a violent swath across the countryside in search of his missing missus.
- After escaping enemy imprisonment, hardened Vietnam War veteran Ross Archer returns home blinded in one eye from an injury suffered during frontline combat. Arriving at his houseboat, Ross, sporting an eye patch, is surprised to find go-go dancer Ellie living there instead of his wife Angela. Ellie explains that Angela, who worked with her at Maxie Marks's night club, offered to let Ellie live on the boat after having moved out months earlier. Later, Ross learns from club owner and comedian Maxie that Angela quit to look for better work after Ross was reported missing in action. Discovering Angela's current address from pinup photographer Carmen, Ross lets himself into her extravagant suite at the Ambassador Hotel and finds articles about millionaire Gregory Mann. When an affluently dressed Angela returns carrying wig boxes, she shows Ross no affection and will not explain her current circumstances to him, despite a violent outburst from Ross. Returning to the houseboat, Ross is forced to fight off an intruder, who escapes. When Ellie returns to the houseboat that evening, she coyly admits that she read his letters to Angela and is intrigued by him, prompting Ross to kiss her. The next morning, police lieutenant Craig informs Ross that Angela jumped to her death at the hotel, leaving only a suicide note, which Ross confirms is in her handwriting. Suspicious about the death, Ross insists on an autopsy and tells Craig about the prowler and the articles on Mann. Although reluctant to spend time on a suicide, Craig agrees to accompany Ross to the Mann estate, where they are greeted by the vacuous, etiquette-obsessed Mrs. Mann and the gentlemanly, wheelchair-bound Mann, who claims to know nothing about Angela. Locating the shop where Angela purchased her wigs, Ross learns that she bought a brunette wig and made a call from the shop to plan a rendezvous at room 25 in the La Paloma hotel. When Ross arrives at the address, he finds Dr. Barry, an abortionist, who admits under pressure that an anonymous woman sought his services, but died during the late-term abortion. When the spineless man attempts to return the $600 fee to Ross to assuage his anger, Ross attacks him, sending the man fleeing into the street where he is killed by a passing car. Later, Craig reveals that the autopsy report showed Angela was dead before she was thrown from the roof. Although Craig assumes that she died from the abortion, Ross is still uncertain and goes to the club to confront Maxie, whom he has learned was having an affair with Angela. While at the club, Ross receives a call from Carmen, but before he can get to her studio, knife-wielding Christopher, Mann's hired thug, kills Carmen for information about a "Judith Hagen." Minutes later, Ross discovers Carmen's body and the very much alive Angela, disguised in a brunette wig. His wife explains that a woman resembling her, the South American Judith, was blackmailing Mann with information that is now in a safe-deposit box, for which Angela has the key. Carmen had taken Judith for the abortion, but when she died, paid Angela $25,000 of the blackmail money to pose as Judith and make the suicide look as if Angela had died. After stating that Carmen's murderer was looking for the key, Angela reminisces fondly with Ross about their reckless youth and early marriage, and they consider reuniting. The next day, while Angela, posing as Judith, enters the bank to retrieve the contents of the safe-deposit box, Ross spots the suspicious-looking Christopher waiting outside. After they discover that the package contains proof that Mann was actually war criminal Wilhelm Hauser, a major in the Third Reich, Ross insists that Angela return to her apartment to protect her from Christopher, while he takes the package, thus luring the thug to follow him rather than Angela. After a high speed chase, Ross drives off the road, stops his car and engages Christopher in a fistfight. Christopher prevails, grabs the package and attempts to run over him, but Ross shoots him, causing the car and the evidence to explode in flames. Ross then goes to Mann's house, where he insinuates that he now is in possession of the proof about Mann's war crimes. Mann divulges that after serving in the Third Reich military, he fled to Paraguay where he had a daughter, Judith, whom he abandoned. He had ignored her recent attempts to contact him, willing to do anything rather than face trial for his war crimes. Mann offers Ross $100,000 to keep quiet and orders his wife to get the money from the safe. Appalled to learn of her husband's real identity, Mrs. Mann gets the money, but adds an extra pill to his regular medications, causing instant heart failure. After Mrs. Mann unabashedly admits to her deed, Ross watches Mann's excruciating death. Leaving with the money, Ross hopes to reunite with Angela at the Ambassador, and goes to the hotel, but discovers that she has fallen to her death from the apartment window. He then goes to the club, where a drunken Maxie, who is rehearsing a comedy routine, admits to pushing Angela out the window in a rage after finding that she was still alive. Ross chases Maxie onto the beach, where he almost drowns him, but stops after recalling drowning a Viet Cong girl during the war. At Ross's boat later, Craig informs him that Mrs. Mann, soon to inherit millions, deliriously repeated the amount "$100,000" to police as she was taken away to a mental facility. Craig then hints that Ross is "due for some," and leaves him in peace. When Ellie asks about his plans, Ross tells her, "fishing," and leaves alone for the deep sea.
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By what name was Revenge Is My Destiny (1971) officially released in Canada in English?
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