The Disappearance

The Disappearance is a 1977 British-Canadian thriller film directed by Stuart Cooper and starring Donald Sutherland, Francine Racette, David Hemmings and John Hurt. It is based on the novel Echoes of Celandine by Derek Marlowe. Plot Jay Mallory is a contract killer living in Montréal who works for an unknown international criminal organization. He returns home to his downtown apartment one cold winter day to find that his wife, Celandine, is gone. Mallory initially thinks that Celandine has left him of her own volition, since their marriage was a sometimes stormy, albeit passionate, relationship. However, Mallory's main point of contact at the Organization, Burbank, indicates that Celandine's disappearance may be somehow associated with Mallory's last hit. Shortly after their discussion, Burbank himself disappears. The Organization assigns Mallory another job in Suffolk, England. Mallory feels that there is something unusual about this job - he is given little initial information, including not knowing who is the target - and that it is associated with Celandine's disappearance. Despite feeling that he may be being set up, Mallory decides to take the job anyway to see how it plays out and if it leads him back to Celandine. Meanwhile, he has been told that his missing wife had an affair with an Englishman named Roland Deverell. Mallory flies to London as instructed. He meets his new contact, Atkinson, who gives him a weapon to be used for the assassination, which they refer to as a "shy". After renting a car and driving to rural Suffolk, Mallory begins to suspect that the Organization plans to betray him since Burbank informed him earlier that the Organization often "retires" operatives who are deemed no longer trustworthy or useful.