The Black Windmill (1974)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

Clive Egleton (novel)
Leigh Vance (screenplay)

Release Date:

2 August 1974 (Finland)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

The ultimate exercise in controlled terror.

Plot:

A British agent's son is kidnapped and held for a ransom of diamonds. The agent finds out that he can't even count on the people he thought were on his side to help him, so he decides to track down the kidnappers himself.

Plot Keywords:

Agent | Diamond | Ransom | Murder | Death

Cast

Michael Caine	...	Maj. John Tarrant
Donald Pleasence	...	Cedric Harper
Delphine Seyrig	...	Ceil Burrows
Clive Revill	...	Alf Chestermann
John Vernon	...	McKee
Joss Ackland	...	Chief Supt. Wray
Catherine Schell	...	Lady Melissa Julyan
Janet Suzman	...	Alex Tarrant
Joseph O'Conor	...	Sir Edward Julyan (as Joseph O'Connor)
Denis Quilley	...	Bateson
Paul Moss	...	David Tarrant
Derek Newark	...	Monitoring Policeman
Edward Hardwicke	...	Mike McCarthy
Maureen Pryor	...	James Harper
Joyce Carey	...	Miss Monley - Harper's Secretary

Also Known As:

Drabble (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:12 (re-rating) (2006) | UK:A (original rating) | Australia:M | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Hampstead, London, England, UK

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

According to a book on Michael Reeves, Nicky Henson was interviewed for a role.

Promising plot, but with several holes in it

I usually enjoy Michael Caine's films, but though this one started promising enough, its second half made the overall effect disappointing. The most dissatisfying aspect was how Tarrant and his wife worked out exactly where their son was being held on the basis of a phone call from the Brighton area and the villain's reference to a "pleasant farm" and two "rather unusual windows"; this defied belief.

Other contributors have already noted one witty reference, to "Sean Connery"; there is another, in that the Tarrants rendezvous outside a cinema where "Battle of Britain" (starring Caine) is showing.

And wasn't that Richard Attenborough playing the jeweller visited by the two men from New Scotland Yard; this role appears not to feature in the filmographies I've glanced at.