Deadfall (1968)

Just what I expected

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

DEADFALL is a lushly photographed suspense story with a cat burglar theme, wallowing in a full bodied John Barry score--especially during the major heist involving MICHAEL CAINE's high climbing bit where he's breaking into a playboy's mansion. Clever editing permits cross-cutting between a concert hall suite and the burglary in progress. GIOVANNA RALLI is the pretty Italian woman married to the mastermind of the burglary--ERIC PORTMAN--an aged homosexual.After the main burglary, the story sags from mid-point onward with talky scenes between Caine and Ralli where she talks about her failed marriage and revelations of a sordid kind. All of this leads toward a downbeat ending with explanations made that are supposed to be shocking but don't have the desired impact because by then the pace of the film has become too lethargic.ERIC PORTMAN gets the best lines but the dialog is hardly up to the caliber of Tennessee Williams and that's what is needed here, considering the sort of material the story deals with.Summing up: Handsomely photographed on locations in England and Spain, it's a so-so crime caper after a solidly suspenseful burglary. The John Williams score is its biggest asset.

One of countless heist films that came out in the 60's, this one throws in the added kink of a homosexual mastermind (Portman) who's married to a much younger woman (Ralli) as they recruit Caine to pilfer diamonds from a millionaire's mansion. Portman sends Ralli to Caine as his emissary, knowing that her charms will be more likely to win him over to their cause than if he did the task himself. Before they will even attempt to steal the diamonds from millionaire Buck, they make Caine do a trial run on another wealthy victim. In an elaborately presented (and a bit over-long) sequence, a guitar concerto rages on, inter-cut with scenes of Caine breaking into an estate and dismantling a wall safe. (Hilariously, the rich couple gets all dolled up and is escorted to a concert hall where, after ONE NUMBER, the audience filters back out and the couple returns home! No dinner. no drinks. No dancing. Nothing!) Various implausibilities crop up during this sequence which are covered up in some cases by cutting to the concerto at key moments. Legendary film composer John Barry appears as himself as the maestro at the concert hall. Keen eyes will note that he steps on the guitarist's dress as they come out to bow. After this admittedly interesting scene, the film devolves into a lot of mishmash and sketchy ruminations as Caine starts to fall for Ralli and Ralli begins to discover that there's far more to her husband than the fact that he's older than her and gay. Some of this is veiled and some of it is spelled out. All of it is pretty tedious. The film suffers from lack of focus and overly generous editing. Inexplicably thrown into the mix, though she does have a couple of entertaining moments (perhaps some for the wrong reasons!) is Newman as a flirty woman who happens to worm her way into Buck's mansion the night of the big steal. The film is full of "arty" directorial touches, one being the increasingly annoying habit of putting inanimate objects in the foreground or otherwise obscuring the participants of the scene through rails or grates. Caine does what he can with a mediocre script. Ralli has a striking look, not that dissimilar from Natalie Wood at times, but without Wood's charisma. Portman speaks with such a garbled accent that not too many of his lines come out intelligibly. Apart from some nice settings and a few arresting sequences, this has to count as a misfire. It does, however, have a hooty "faux" James Bond theme performed by Shirley Bassey and composed by John Barry, who collaborated on three real Bond themes over the years.

I knew if I came to the IMDb there would be the usual litany of "neglected gem" "undiscovered masterpiece" "not as bad as you've heard" that every bad and awful movie seems to get. No comprende, I'm afraid. This thing was critically lambasted and the public that bothered to see it hated it. Why? Because it STINKS. Bad script, pretentious and unnecessarily arty direction, a terrible performance by its female lead, and I could go on but why bother. This is part of a three Caine DVD release from Fox, and they're three of the worst movies ever made - I'm sure when I go look up the other two - Peeper and The Magus - that there will be more of "neglected gem" "undiscovered masterpiece" "not as bad as you've heard" from the great unwashed or the film school pedants. I mean, sorry, this is a BAD movie.

Bryan Forbes is an underrated director, almost forgotten today for a string of well reviewed films that ended with this one. The good reviews did that is. Perhaps at the time the direction seemed "overboard" but by today's standards of course it is merely stylish. It features lots of interesting camera angles, almost like a Joseph Losey film at times visually, and a lot of well written dialog.Caine is very good. He played a series of almost expressionless villains and near-villains in the late 1960's. This roll is one of those, crook who falls for the wrong woman, deals but he totally sells it. Even the tone of his voice is different than you'd expect. He also gets to display both surprise and rage towards the end which gives the character more of a place to go than in the more highly regarded say Harry Palmer films and the soon to be made and good but over rated GET CARTER. He really makes the film work.The odd character relationships also help a great deal as does John Barry's music. Fans of his probably know the main robbery scene is inter cut with a specially composed piece of pseudo classical music he wrote and which the scene was edited to later. It's a fascinating sequence and not like anything else Barry ever composed and worth watching for any fan of film music, meaning music in a film connected and interacting with it, not just as a CD to buy and enjoy. The whole score has a touch of the Spanish setting the film lushly invokes. You do have to ignore the lyrics and slightly heard it before nature of the Title song.This is not an action crime film, more of a corrupted souls and the crimes they commit type of approach with an interesting Spanish setting. It's disguised film noir with realistic occasionally funny dialog and cool oddball sinister angles and editing choices that maybe play better today than at the time. Well worth watching, but good luck finding it.