"Dirty Harry" director Don Siegel's first European thriller "The Black Windmill" qualifies as an above-average kidnap yarn, with Michael Caine toplining the cast as an MI6 Agent whose single-minded efforts to rescue his son places suspicion on him. Nevertheless, this adaptation of Clive Eglerton's "Seven Days to a Killing" suffers from mundanity. Despite Siegel's astute staging of various scenes, everything in "Crossplot" scenarist Leigh Vance's screenplay unfolds with neither urgency nor spontaneity. Essentially, this looks like every other cinematic kidnapping caper, except the father is later implicated by the kidnappers. Tensions rise between Tarrant and his immediate superior, Cedric Harper (a mustached Donald Pleasance of "Halloween"), to the extent that Harper suspects Tarrant may have planned the abduction himself. After all, Harper knows Tarrant has separated from his wife ex-wife Alex (Janet Suzman of "Nicholas and Alexandra") as their divorce is pending. Furthermore, Harper observes to Tarrant that the latter doesn't show any palatable sense of loss by the snatching of his son. Tarrant regards Harper with incredulity and points out that he has been trained not to display emotions. This doesn't stop Harper from putting Scotland Yard Chief Superintend Wray (Joss Ackland of "Lethal Weapon 2") on Tarrant's trail. A sinister Irishman named McKee (John Vernon of "Charley Varrick"), working with a shady lady, Ceil Burrows (Delphine Seyrig of "Last Year at Marienbad"), set the ransom at $500,000 in uncut diamonds. When they contact Tarrant, they refer to themselves simply as Drabble, and ask that Harper be available when they call again. As it turns out, McKee knows that Harper heads MI6's "The Department of Subversive Warfare." Harper amassed this amount to fund mercenary activities. Later, we learn one of Harper's own superiors at MI6, Sir Julyan (Joseph O'Conor), needed more money desperately to accommodate his beauty young wife, Lady Melissa Julyan (Catherine Schell of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service") and her lavish lifestyle. When Tarrant learns Harper isn't going to let him use the diamonds to gain the release of his son, our hero takes them behind their back, and travels to Paris to negotiate.
Meantime, "Windmill" takes place in a more realistic setting for MI6 than shares more in common with John le Carré's espionage epics than Ian Fleming's Bonds. For example, all the secretaries are older ladies, and there is a conspicuous lack of technology. The buildings housing the organization look old, without an immaculate cleanness. One scene shows Major John Tarrant (Michael Caine of "The Ipcress File") being shown how to handle an explosive suitcase. This scene looks straight out of a 007 opus with Q demonstrating to Bond his latest technological development. The difference is this device looks something you'd pick up at a second-hand shop.
Contrived as it is, "The Black Windmill" goes through all the motions, but none of its set-pieces are extraordinary. The chief blame must lay at the feet of Leigh Vance. The kidnapping conspiracy is muddled, and we can never figure out how it came about. None of the action scenes are very exciting. Don Siegel rarely made misfires like "The Black Windmill."
Meantime, "Windmill" takes place in a more realistic setting for MI6 than shares more in common with John le Carré's espionage epics than Ian Fleming's Bonds. For example, all the secretaries are older ladies, and there is a conspicuous lack of technology. The buildings housing the organization look old, without an immaculate cleanness. One scene shows Major John Tarrant (Michael Caine of "The Ipcress File") being shown how to handle an explosive suitcase. This scene looks straight out of a 007 opus with Q demonstrating to Bond his latest technological development. The difference is this device looks something you'd pick up at a second-hand shop.
Contrived as it is, "The Black Windmill" goes through all the motions, but none of its set-pieces are extraordinary. The chief blame must lay at the feet of Leigh Vance. The kidnapping conspiracy is muddled, and we can never figure out how it came about. None of the action scenes are very exciting. Don Siegel rarely made misfires like "The Black Windmill."