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Synopsis
British secret agent Major John Tarrant (Michael Caine, Get Carter) has his son kidnapped by ruthless gunrunners who demand a batch of uncut diamonds in exchange for his son's life. As Tarrant embarks on a chilling trail of revenge, he is forced to steal the diamonds and he finds himself having to not only contend with the criminals but his colleagues too. Action director Don Siegel (Dirty Harry) takes the unusual step of making a British spy thriller. The Black Windmill is based on the book Seven Days to a Killing by Clive Eggleton and features a host of good performances by the talented cast, which includes Donald Pleasance (Halloween) as Tarrant's boss Cedric Harper.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice dvd copy but a slow movie, that missed it's chance to be great,
By Andy B (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Black Windmill [DVD] (1974) (DVD)
A nice letter box 2.35.1 image & no extras, which is not that bad.But the film itself just seems to amble on. Fine performances from the cast it just seems that Don Siegle, who gave us terrific paced movies as Dirty Harry & Telefon just seem to be stuck in the slow groove with this 1. A fine book which had a really interesting story line just seems to plodding along. No doubt with the never ending stream of remakes going on, maybe this 1 will reappear. Not terrible, just not great.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Efficiently average but rather unexciting with it,
By
This review is from: The Black Windmill [DVD] (1974) (DVD)
The Black Windmill has a workable premise, a unspectacularly decent cast (Delphine Seyrig, Donald Pleasance, Janet Suzman, Clive Revill, Dennis Quilley, Edward Hardwicke and Joss Ackland among them) and a good director in Don Siegel, but it never catches fire. Michael Caine, playing a very different spy to Harry Palmer - more of a middle class career army officer who never needed to be blackmailed into the job - finds himself being set up by the vicious kidnappers of his young son to steal some diamonds intended for some dubious operation, eventually finding himself having to avoid his employers, the French and British police and take out the very bad guys (hey, it is John Vernon). All of which sounds at least more energetic than the film actually is. It moves along with competence, dotting the `i's and crossing the `t's, but even though a surprising amount happens in the last half hour, it never seems to develop any tension or urgency. Along the way there's a nice Sean Connery joke and a neat scene that manages to reference both The sound of Music and Caine's own Battle of Britain, but the good Scope composition and the typical 70s Roy Budd score make more of an impression than anything else in the film.Uiniversal's DVD has no extras, but it does boast a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer that at least ensures the film looks its best and has none of the panning-and-scanning problems of the TV prints.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Uneven thriller courtesy of Don Siegel,
By
This review is from: The Black Windmill [DVD] (1974) (DVD)
The young son of a British intelligence agent (Michael Caine), who is working on breaking an arms smuggling ring, is kidnapped by the very people his father is investigating. When they demand a ransom of uncut diamonds which are held by his superiors, Caine finds they refuse to aid in the rescue of his child and it falls on his shoulders to get justice done. Directed by Don Siegel, this spy thriller is uneven. The first portion is very good what with Caine playing a variation on his Harry Palmer roles, only this time with a wife (Janet Suzman, NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA) and child. It jumps the shark toward the last third when it becomes far fetched and an uninspired bang-bang conclusion. The script seems rather sloppy in the details as in when Caine remarks how his son made him take him to THE SOUND OF MUSIC four times though the boy doesn't appear to have been born when the film came out. Donald Pleasence makes for a chillingly bureaucratic MI6 head and the wonderful Delphine Seyrig is marvelous as a rather slutty kidnapper. With Clive Revill, John Vernon, Joss Ackland, Catherine Schell, Denis Quilley and Hermione Baddeley.The Universal DVD from Great Britain is a handsome anamorphic wide screen 2.35 transfer.
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