The Disappearance
The Disappearance
R | 25 September 1981 (USA)
The Disappearance Trailers

The wife of a contract killer disappears. When he is hired by an international organisation to carry out a hit, he suspects they are connected with her disappearance.

Reviews
Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews
Konterr Brilliant and touching
Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS***Canadian thriller with a shocking scene in it where a box of Kellogs Cornflakes, my favorite serial, being shot to pieces as it's used by the person bring shot at as a human shield. The film has to do with this top Canadian hit-man Jay Mallory, Donald Sutherland, who's two timing wife's Celandine, Francine Racette, disappears on him and instead of being happy & relived, she's wasn't worth the trouble, he goes all out in both Canada & the UK to find her and bring her back to him.By the time the movie ends we have no idea on which side Celandine is on but by then her husband, who was by then completely out of the picture, couldn't care less.After doing a number of "Shy's"-hit-jobs in Canadian mobster talk- Mallory is given a job or "Shy" to do in England by his boss Deverell, played by Christopher-known to his friends as "Chris the Plummer"- Plummer, that sounds a bit fishy to him.As Mallory soon suspects it's Deverell who's setting him up and is using his lost wife Celandine to do it. As we soon see Celandine's psycho act of her losing her mind is to throw off all suspicions on what she's really up to which by the time the movie is over she doesn't know herself.***SPOILERS***The deadly serious Jay Mallory starts to lose his touch as a 1st class hit-man and lets his guard down for the first and last time by him thinking that he can quit the mob and live to tell about it. The ending tells it all shot in the Canadian dead of winter that he as well as we in the audience not to mention the Kellogs Corn Flake serial box never saw it coming. It was foolish for Mallory to feel that his life as a hit-man was far behind him not realizing that those that he hit have friends and relatives who won't forget what he did as well as the mob whom he by leaving it he tried to double-cross!
lastshotfilms I was lucky enough to view Stuart Cooper's original cut of 'The Disappearance' which has never seen and is not available on DVD. Just like his film OVERLORD which has been released by the Criterion Collection and become a classic, 'The Disappearance' holds it's own. The acting is first rate, the original music is lush and the John Alcott's cinematography is outstanding. It is a shame that untalented producers are allowed to tamper with the original works. The original is in a non-linear format. Perhaps the reviewers should watch the original uncut/unedited version and then I would think they would revise their reviews. It is brilliant! Hopefully it will be screened at a festival in the future so all can enjoy.
Ron Broadfoot The Disappearance, to me, is a Hitchcock wannabe that simply isn't. It's a slowly paced, talky thriller that just doesn't cut it. Donald Sutherland and the cast are great, but there are so many British actors in the cast that the term "Canadian-Made" sounds like a cheat. If this is a Canadian movie, wouldn't it have been better if they had put all Canadian actors in the cast? Also, if the movie takes place in Montreal (a mostly French-speaking city), wouldn't it have made more sense to have Sutherland's character do his foreign assignment in somewhere like Paris, France, instead of in England? After all, this is not a British movie, it's Canadian.It surprised me that Sutherland and Francine Racette were married and had 3 children.I recommend this only for fans of deep psychological thrillers. As for me, I think I will be putting a "Previously Viewed" label on this one and dropping it in the drop-off slot at my local video store.Rating: **
paul_mcmahon_au This film does a fine job of putting the viewer into the position of the main protagonist, Jay Mallory. It isn't until the climax of the film when Mallory and Christopher Plummer's character, Deverell, meet that the viewer can understand the disjointed, roller-coaster ride that Mallory has been on.The haunting piano music beautifully reflects the tension of the film. The support cast is made up of outstanding English and European actors who give the feel of the film the pace so often brought to the screen of excellent non-US films.