DEADFALL

Cat burglar Henry Clarke checks himself into a Spanish sanatorium for alcoholics under a false pretence. His true motivation is to get closer to a wealthy patient named Salinas and then rob his magnificent house.

Clarke is approached by Fé Moreau and her much older husband, Richard, to form a criminal alliance. As a test run before the real robbery, they break into another stately home. After risking his life on a ledge, Clarke 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.

Fé and Clarke begin a romantic affair, which Richard, who has a young male lover, does not discourage. Fé buys a new E-Type Jaguar (known as XK-E in the USA) convertible for Clarke and tells him the safe contained jewels worth at least $500,000.

Before the time comes to rob Salinas's mansion, Fé travels to Tangier without letting Clarke know she was leaving. Richard then tells Clarke a harrowing tale of how he once betrayed his male lover to the Nazis and later impregnated the man's wife. Their baby was Fé, but, choosing not to tell her that she was his daughter, Richard married her.

A contemptuous Clarke decides to break into Salinas's mansion on his own. Fé returns and is shocked when a suicidal and depressed Richard reveals the truth about their relationship. She races to the Salinas mansion and inadvertently alerts a guard, who shoots Clarke coming out a window at the same moment that Richard commits suicide with a pistol at home. Clarke falls to his death and Fé rushes to his body.

Fé attends a funeral. Afterwards, she is led off by police while Richard's homosexual lover drives off in Clarke's car.

Clarke is shot and falls to his death during the attempted robbery, while Richard commits suicide at home. Fé attends a funeral and is led away by police.

The film’s conclusion ties the personal and criminal threads into a final, tragic knot. Clarke’s ambition and emotional entanglements with the Moreaus lead to his downfall—literally—while Richard’s desperate confession and suicide underscore the destructive nature of secrets and betrayal. Fé’s final moments, caught between loss and the law, leave a lasting impression of the price paid by all in this web of crime and relationships.