- Deadfall (1968 film)
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Deadfall is a 1968 film directed by Bryan Forbes and starring Michael Caine, Eric Portman, and Giovanna Ralli, with music by John Barry.
It is based on the 1965 thriller from author Desmond Cory.
Theme Song My Love Has Two Faces was performed by Shirley Bassey.
Summary
Cat burglar Henry Clarke checks himself into a sanitarium for alcoholics in Spain under a false pretense. His true motivation is to get closer to a wealthy clinic patient named Salinas and then rob his magnificent house.
Henry is approached by Fe Moreau and her much older husband Richard to form an alliance. As a test run before the real robbery, they break into another stately home. After risking his life on a ledge, Henry becomes so angered by Richard's failure to crack the safe that, with great effort, he drags the entire safe and its contents out of the house.
Fe and Henry begin a romantic affair, which Richard, a homosexual with a young male lover, does not discourage. Fe buys a new Jaguar convertible for Henry and tells him the safe contained jewels worth at least a half-million dollars.
Before the time comes to rob Salinas's mansion, Fe travels to Tangiers without letting Henry know she was leaving. Richard then tells Henry a harrowing tale, of how he once betrayed a male lover to the Nazis and later impregnated the man's wife. Their baby turned out to be Fe, but rather than explain that she was his daughter, Richard married her instead.
A contemptuous Henry decides to break into Salinas' mansion on his own. Fe returns and is shocked when a suicidally depressed Richard reveals the truth about their relationship. She races to the Salinas mansion and inadvertently alerts a guard, who shoots Henry coming out a window. He falls from the ledge to his death.
With both her lover and husband/father dead, Fe attends a funeral. She is then led off by police, while Richard's gay lover drives off in Henry's car.
Cast
- Michael Caine as Henry Stuart Clarke
- Giovanna Ralli as Fé Moreau
- Eric Portman as Richard Moreau
- David Buck as Salinas
- Leonard Rossiter as Fillmore
- Geraldine Sherman as Delgado's Receptionist
- Carlos Pierre as Antonio
- Vladek Sheybal as Dr. Delgado
- Renata Tarrago as Guitar Soloist
- Nanette Newman as Girl
External links
- Deadfall at the Internet Movie Database
- John Barry- 'Theme from Romance For Guitar & Orchestra' from Deadfall on YouTube
Films directed by Bryan Forbes 1960s Whistle Down the Wind (1961) • The L-Shaped Room (1962) • Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) • King Rat (1965) • The Wrong Box (1966) • The Whisperers (1967) • Deadfall (1968) • The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969)1970s The Raging Moon (1971) • The Stepford Wives (1975) • The Slipper and the Rose (1976) • International Velvet (1978)1980s Better Late Than Never (1982) • The Naked Face (1984)Categories:- 1968 films
- 1960s drama films
- Films directed by Bryan Forbes
- 1960s drama film stubs
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