Michael Caine plays a slim and trim--but not athletic--cat burglar who has to get inside a mansion by climbing the exterior in order to provide access to his accomplice, an aging safe-cracker. During Caine's climbing, balancing and close calls, he gets to one spot where he does a 'dead-fall' drop: as he faces the sheer side of the mansion, he takes a step back and drops to a narrow cement ledge a story below. We next see him clinging for dear life by his fingers, his face in anguish, then pulling his fully stretched out body up to the ledge. Burt Lancaster, maybe. Daniel Caine, maybe. Michael Caine, no. If director Forbes had only worked the stunt as an accidental slip, maybe one could reason that adrenalin lent some strength, not that it was part of the plan. I can't imagine a veteran cat burglar planning such a stunt with the assumption his dead-fall would not be his last fall. I guess despite the film's positive points, if I can't accept this burglar's logic, then the caper becomes fantasy at best.
Review of Deadfall
