Henry Clarke (Michael Caine) is a jewel thief and a recovering alcoholic hiding out in a sanitarium, trying to get close to his next mark, the wealthy Salinas (David Buck). One day he's visited by Fe Moreau (Giovanna Ralli), who entices him with an offer to work with her and her husband on their next heist to pull off a diamond robbery in the home of a rich aristocrat. After meeting Richard Moreau (Eric Portman), Clarke decides to work with them, partly because he's attracted to Richard. Then it's revealed that Richard is attracted to Clarke. He begins an affair with Fe when he realizes that Richard is an out and proud homosexual with Spanish lover Antonio (Carlos Pierre). What follows is a perverse game of sexuality and thievery, culminating in a startling revelation that rocks this romantic triangle, and which disastrously affects the climactic heist.
We have to figure out what the relationships are between Clarke and Salinas, as well as with Fe and Richard. There is a revelation that Richard is Fe's real father, and that they had a sexual relationship in the past. The film makes much of the perverse nature of their relationship, and something is so obviously wrong with it that the audience can only reach the most salacious conclusions concerning the couple. "Deadfall" refuses to clear up the central mystery of Richard's past Nazi activities, and much agonizing is made of it by Clarke and Fe. They even introduce the character Fillmore (Leonard Rossiter) who starts to clue us in on Richard, but then the filmmakers just drop the whole idea--and Fillmore. Maybe he was the victim, along with other major plot points, of severe post-production editing. And we're never given a clear understanding of why Richard takes his own daughter for a lover, as well as his wife.
In this Hitchockian suspense film everyone's motives are hidden, and by the time they're revealed, we have ceased to care about them. The film is 120 minutes long and could have benefited from some editing. There are too many scenes of characters looking mysteriously at each other, while we try to guess their feelings and what they're thinking. Basically, "Deadfall" is pretentious psychiatric nonsense wrapped around a heist movie. Caine's acting is not his best, but Portman shines here. Despite the pretentious dialogue he's given, he steals every scene he's in. John Barry composed the original music, somewhat derivative of his later 007 music--particularly "You Only Live Twice". Bryan Forbes wrote the screenplay derived from Desmond Cory's novel. Bryan Forbes also directed.
