{"id":14297,"date":"2026-04-11T18:09:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14297"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:09:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:09:43","slug":"the-disappearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/04\/11\/the-disappearance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disappearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Disappearance<\/strong> (1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 World Northal\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, nudity, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Stuart Cooper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Mayersberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Robert Farnon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Alcott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 25, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Donald Sutherland, Francine Racette, David Hemmings, John Hurt, David Warner, Peter Bowles, Virginia McKenna, Christopher Plummer, Michele Magny, Duane Howard, Robin Sachs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0On a 1981 episode of Sneak Previews, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert ganged up on poor Donald Sutherland, selecting two of his movies as their Dogs of the Week. One of them chose the turgid Alistair MacLean adaptation Bear Island. The other went with The Disappearance<\/strong>, a noir-ish thriller featuring the actor as a hitman looking for his missing wife. The critics saw them as a double feature. I wonder if they flipped a coin to determine who got to trash which movie. I can tell you this. They were dead-on about Bear Island. They were dead wrong about The Disappearance<\/strong>. It\u2019s GREAT!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Stuart Cooper (Little Malcolm), The Disappearance<\/strong> is a joint British-Canadian production. It was originally released in 1977, but closed after an extremely brief run in cinemas. Audiences reportedly found it slow and confusing with its non-linear narrative. The studio, against the director\u2019s objections, re-edited it in chronological order, cut it down to 81 minutes and tried again. It didn\u2019t do any better. It disappeared again from cinemas and the collective memory of the moviegoing public.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I watched maybe the first 15 minutes of The Disappearance<\/strong> on cable in 1983 before switching it off in boredom. At 15, I wanted more action. That was then; this is now. I\u2019ve wanted to give it another chance for a while now. I had several chances in the 90s as it was available at one of my local video haunts The Movie Company. I always passed it up for something else. I thought I was out of luck until I stumbled across a copy about a week ago. I wasted no time in securing it for a late night viewing. I didn\u2019t know what to expect, especially now that my tastes are more refined (?). It took a minute or two to get the rhythm of this bleak suspense-thriller, but once I did, I was totally into it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sutherland (Ordinary People) plays Mallory, a hitman who works for a clandestine outfit called \u201cThe Office\u201d. No, it\u2019s not managed by Steve Carell. He comes home after a job to find his wife Celandine (Racette, Four Flies on Grey Velvet) gone, vanished without a trace. Flashbacks reveal a stormy but passionate marriage. Their main point of contention seems to be his career. It could be that she simply left him. Or it could be something worse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The higher-ups in The Office want Mallory to accept a job in England. They don\u2019t give him too many details including the intended target (or \u201cshy\u201d as it\u2019s called here). It sounds shadier than usual. It could be a set-up. It could also be connected to his wife\u2019s disappearance. He\u2019s unsure, but he takes the job anyway to see where it takes him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I enjoy many subgenres of film- e.g. spaghetti westerns, 80s slasher horrors, bad American remakes of French comedies, dubbed kung fu flicks, goofy (non-Disney) kiddie matinee movies and anything from Cannon or New World. I also enjoy Canadian tax shelter movies like Rabid (1977), The Silent Partner (1978), City on Fire (1979), Prom Night (1980), Tulips (1981) and Class of 1984 (1982). The Disappearance <\/strong>definitely falls under that category. Filmed (mostly) in Montreal, it has a distinctive Canadian flavor. Cinematographer John Alcott (The Shining) makes excellent use of the snowy, unforgiving wintry landscapes. They\u2019re a perfect match for the cold nature of the characters. The city has a barren, unwelcoming look to it. The apartment building Mallory lives in is anything but warm and homey with its cold, inhospitable design. Even the scenes shot in Suffolk have a gray, ominous look. This is what film noir looks like in daylight.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sutherland plays a great villain. He was incredible as a murderous German spy in Eye of the Needle (1981). He\u2019s equally great as a cold-blooded killer in The Disappearance<\/strong>. Although his character is technically the hero of the piece, he\u2019s still very much a bad guy. He dispatches his targets with cold, precise efficiency. He remains unreadable throughout, always keeping his guard up when it comes to personal matters. He\u2019s not entirely unfeeling though. He does love his wife and wants to locate her more than anything. Racette, Sutherland\u2019s then-wife, plays Celandine as a complete enigma with dialogue like \u201cOne day I leave you, then you\u2019ll understand\u201d. She perfectly captures the character\u2019s tempestuous nature.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland are aided by an impressive supporting cast that includes David Warner (TRON), David Hemmings (Blow-Up), John Hurt (The Elephant Man), Peter Bowles (The Offence), Virginia McKenna (Born Free) and Christopher Plummer (The Silent Partner). Plummer is particularly good as a character integral to the plot. He makes a memorable impact despite having a mere four minutes of screen time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Based on the Derek Marlowe novel Echoes of Celandine, The Disappearance<\/strong> is a well-written, slow-burn suspense-thriller that sneaks up on you. Initially, you might think it\u2019s too slow and going nowhere. You might also be put off by the frequent flashbacks to various points in Mallory and Celandine\u2019s relationship. It provides context for how he\u2019s feeling now that she\u2019s gone. Let me assure you there\u2019s more going on than that. The screenplay by Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell to Earth) doesn\u2019t spell some things out. It assumes intelligence on the part of the audience. He leaves it up to the viewer to figure them out on their own based on subtle hints and nuances. It\u2019s quite brilliant really.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think I know why Siskel or Ebert (not sure which) chose The Disappearance<\/strong> as their Dog of the Week. They probably saw the recut version. I never saw it, but it sounds to me like it defeats the intention of the filmmaker. He was going for something smart; the studio wanted audience-friendly. This is why films need to be left to the artists who create them. Studios just f*** things up. I\u2019m glad to see The Disappearance<\/strong> is its intended form. It\u2019s a true hidden treasure.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Disappearance (1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 World Northal\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, nudity, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Stuart Cooper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Mayersberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Robert Farnon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Alcott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 25, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Donald Sutherland, Francine Racette, David Hemmings, John Hurt, David Warner, Peter Bowles, Virginia McKenna, Christopher Plummer, Michele Magny, Duane Howard, Robin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hidden-treasures","category-suspense-thrillers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The-Disappearance-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C938&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14301,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297\/revisions\/14301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}