CAST: Michael Caine (Major John Tarrant), Donald Pleasence (Cedric Harper), Delphine Seyrig (Ceil Burrows), Clive Revill (Alf Chestermann), John Vernon (McKee), Joss Ackland (Chief Superintend Wray), Janet Suzman (Alex Tarrant), Catherine Schell (Lady Melissa Julyan), Joseph O’Conor (Sir Edward Julyan), Denis Quilley (Bateson). Directed by Don Siegel.
SYNOPSIS: Major John Tarrant is a spy working for the British government to infiltrate a sabotage ring. At a meeting with his boss Cedric Harper (Donald Pleasence) and higher ups including Sir Edward Julyan, Tarrant receives a call from his wife explaining that their son David has been kidnapped. Tarrant returns home and takes the call from the kidnapper known as Drabble who demands to be put in touch with Harper. After reluctantly agreeing to talk to the kidnapper, Harper is shocked to hear the demand of the exact amount of uncut diamonds recently purchased by the department. Believing it is an inside job and that Tarrant may have kidnapped his own son to get the money, Harper has Tarrant tailed by Scotland Yard. But McKee, the real kidnapper, has his partner Ceil Burrows set up Tarrant by leaving photos in his apartment for Scotland Yard to discover. Meanwhile, Harper tells Tarrant the department will not pay the ransom for his son because it would open the floodgates for terrorists. Desperate, Tarrant steals the diamonds himself and brings them to McKee in France, but this backfires when the diamonds are stolen and Tar-rant is knocked unconscious and left next to the murdered Ceil Burrows. Soon after, Harper and Scotland Yard show up and arrest Tarrant and drive him back to England. But McKee’s thugs knock over the van and free Tarrant. Now on the run, Tarrant is aided by his wife Alex in figuring out that someone on the inside wants him dead so no more questions will be asked. Posing as Drabble, Tarrant draws out the inside man behind the kidnapping, Sir Edward Julyan, and forces him to reveal where his son is being held. Holed up in a windmill, McKee attempts a last ditch effort to save himself, but Tarrant kills him and rescues David.
COMMENTARY: The Black Windmill was the third and last film for Pleasence acting alongside the great Michael Caine, and while basically a standard spy thriller, The Black Windmill did rise above, thanks to some crisp direction and wonderful performances by Caine, Pleasence, and John Vernon. As one of the most respected British actors of his generation, Michael Caine had a number of spy films under his belt prior to this film, starting in 1965 as Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File. There is some genuine tension as Tarrant attempts to hold everything together in order to save his son David. Separated from his wife because of constraints related to his job and suspected by his own boss of staging the kidnapping, Tarrant is desperate but still manages to keep his cool and turn the table on the kidnappers. This film also is unique in featuring the only imitation of Donald Pleasence in one of his films, done by Caine as he poses as his boss on the phone to steal the diamonds.
Pleasence has a particularly juicy role in The Black Windmill as the by the books, unsympathetic head of MI6. His character of Cedric Harper seems out of touch with his feelings, due to his inability to console his agent whose going through a horrible ordeal. Otherwise, he acts like a kid in a candy store at the shooting range and in showing off his new 007 style gadgets. Pleasence also gives Harper some nervous ticks like twirling his moustache, picking his nails, and uncontrollable swallowing when he witnesses his boss’s wife acting very affectionate. There is also a great scene in which Harper finishes blowing his nose with a tissue and then fitting for his demeanor, proceeds to put the tissue through a shredder. A New York Times reviewer actually pointed out Pleasence as the person who steals the show — “Still, the flatness of the Caine persona is balanced by Donald Pleasence in his best form as the phobic but stony head of the Department of Subversive Warfare.” [105] The Black Windmill also showcases Pleasence speaking French which he does quite fluently while trying to track down Tarrant. Pleasence also has one of the best lines in the film when he flubs a suspect’s name and as a result pokes fun at 007 — “And whom I believe to be a soviet agent, Sean Connery. Er… Kelly, Sean Kelly.”