Directed by Bryan Forbes. Starring Michael Caine, Giovanni Ralli, Eric Portman, David Buck. Crime/Drama, UK, 114m, cert 12.

Released in UK on DVD by Optimum Home Entertainment on 31st January 2011, £15.99

DEADFALL is a largely forgotten 1968 film by director Bryan Forbes, best known for SF Horror classic THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975). Just as this review was submitted and sadly on the day of its DVD release came the news that the films composer the legendary John Barry had passed away.

Henry Clark (Caine) is a thief drawn by a mysterious married couple Richard and Fé Moreau (Eric Portman and Giovanni Ralli) into a plot to steal diamonds from a Spanish millionaire. We first meet Clark resting in a plush Mediterranean clinic, we will soon find out that he is feigning an alcohol addiction to get close to Salinas (David Buck), the target of the plot. After a daring nighttime robbery Clark becomes embroiled in an ever-tightening web of intrigue with the couple. Richard is homosexual, far older than his wife and appears to be coveting more than just Clark’s skills as a cat burglar. Clark makes his moves on Fé embarking on an affair apparently with the husband’s tacit consent. Thus kicks off a rather sordid love triangle. However the history of the married pair is far darker than Clark realises.

DEADFALL appears on the surface to be a caper thriller of the type popular in the late 60’s - such as the THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968) – however it’s really a twisted psychodrama, alluding to themes of homosexuality and incest in a way that possibly seemed daring in 1968, but is insufferably oblique in 2011. This is one of those films full of pregnant pauses, characters staring out of frame, sudden focus shifts revealing unseen details or sinister stalkers, and in which no-one ever says what they mean. It contrives to take a straightforward story and renders it barely intelligible under a ton of nouvelle vague tricks.

Also notable are bizarre cameos by Leonard Rossiter and Nanette Newman. Rossiter appears briefly in an expositional role that seems to have been truncated to the point of incoherence. The Newman cameo is much larger, and totally inexplicable, except for the fact that she was married to the director. She appears in the last third of the film as a floozy who romances the millionaire, a subplot with no point whatsoever, and is even more miscast than she was in THE STEPFORD WIVES.

The film has two things going for it. Forbes stages a bravura nighttime robbery sequence, cross cutting between Caine and Portman silently infiltrating the millionaire’s mansion with a classical orchestra performance in the town below. The scene uses interesting camera angles, massive close ups, and ties the action to the musical performance. The second is the late John Barry’s score. DEADFALL’s soundtrack is a typically lush and romantic affair reminiscent of Barry’s Bond scores of the period, it even features an opening theme sung by Shirley Bassey. In fact Barry cameos in the film as the conductor of the orchestra in the robbery sequence.

It’s not hard to see why this has remained an obscure film in Michael Caine’s career, at two hours it feels terribly overextended and is a lesson in how quickly sensationalism can become humdrum. However for fans of John Barry this release represents a chance to enjoy one of the great composer’s lesser know scores, and see the man himself in action, conducting with gusto.

Stuart Barr.

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