THE BLACK WINDMILL [1974 / 2021] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
Seven Days To A Killing . . . The Ultimate Exercise In Controlled Terror!
Major John Tarrant [Sir Michael Caine] takes up the revenge trail when ruthless gunrunners kidnap his young son and demand a king’s ransom in uncut diamonds for the boy’s release. With each new lead Major John Tarrant’s chilling quest becomes increasingly deadly as he begins to suspect that one of his colleagues is in league with the merciless abductors.
Released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ stars Sir Michael Caine as a British secret agent targeted for death by friend and foe alike in this riveting suspense thriller directed by legendary filmmaker Don Siegel [‘Dirty Harry’].
FILM FACT: The screenplay by Leigh Vance is based on Clive Egleton's 1973 novel “Seven Days To A Killing.” The story involves a British secret service agent, John Tarrant [Sir Michael Caine], involved in the investigation of an international arms syndicate. Major John Tarrant's son is kidnapped and held to ransom, leading Major John Tarrant to discover that he cannot even rely on the people on his own side. The film was made, in part, on location at Clayton Windmills, south of Burgess Hill, in West Sussex, England. It also featured scenes filmed at the Aldwych tube station and Shepherd's Bush tube stations. Also The Red Lion public house in the Duke of York Street A section of the film was also shot at Pegwell Bay, Ramsgate Hover port, where Major John Tarrant makes his way across the channel and sneaks onto the back of a bus which is on board the hovercraft Sure.
Cast: Sir Michael Caine, Donald Pleasence, Delphine Seyrig, Clive Revill, John Vernon, Joss Ackland, Janet Suzman, Catherine Schell, Joseph O'Conor, Denis Quilley, Derek Newark, Edward Hardwicke, Maureen Pryor, Joyce Carey, Preston Lockwood, Molly Urquhart, David Daker, Hermione Baddeley, Patrick Barr, Yves Afonso (uncredited), Del Baker (uncredited), Murray Brown (uncredited), Jacques Ciron (uncredited), Les Conrad (uncredited), George Lane Cooper (uncredited), Brenda Cowling (uncredited), Robert Dorning (uncredited), Roy Everson (uncredited), Nancy Gabrielle (uncredited), Jill Goldston (uncredited), Charlie Gray (uncredited), Peter Halliday (uncredited), John Harvey (uncredited), Walter Henry (uncredited), Frank Henson (uncredited), Paul Humpoletz (uncredited), Cyril Kent (uncredited), Anthony Lang (uncredited), Tommy Little (uncredited), Derek Lord (uncredited), Roger Lumont (uncredited), Paul Moss (uncredited), Russell Napier (uncredited), Joe Phelps (uncredited), Paul Phillips (uncredited), Dido Plumb (uncredited), Mark Praid (uncredited), John Rhys-Davies (uncredited), Jessie Robins (uncredited), Michael Segal (uncredited), Hilary Sesta (uncredited), Sandy Shelton (uncredited), Byron Sotiris (uncredited), Rita Tobin-Weske (uncredited), Oliver Tomlin (uncredited) and Anthony Verner (uncredited)
Director: Don Siegel
Producers: David Brown, Don Siegel, Richard D. Zanuck and Scott Hale
Screenplay: Clive Egleton (novel) and Leigh Vance (screenplay)
Composer: Roy Budd
Costume Design: Anthony Mendleson
Cinematography: Ousama Rawi, B.S.C. C.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
Audio: English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 106 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Universal Pictures / 101 Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: With the film ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ [1974] Major John Tarrant [Sir Michael Caine] whose son is kidnapped and those who have him want uncut diamonds to pay for his release. Major John Tarrant quest is complicated by him working for the secret service and it appearing someone on the inside has information that is benefitting the kidnappers and framing Major John Tarrant.
Sir Michael Caine gives a very restrained performance, portrays a British spy whose son is kidnapped. It doesn’t take him long, however, to decide that he is going to do whatever it takes to get him back. But he doesn’t take the guns blazing approach, as much as a methodical, cold, and calculating one. The decision to have Sir Michael Caine’s character act this way was either designed to remain faithful original source material or was a deliberate stylistic choice on the part of Don Siegel and the producers.
Adding some much-needed energy to the film is the always enjoyable is Donald Pleasance as an eccentric spymaster whose cold indifference to the kidnapping somehow seems utterly believable. The film also benefits from on location filming, including at the eponymous black windmill in West Sussex. Not horrible, but by no means great, ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ would likely be appreciated more by Don Siegel completest than by anyone else.
Without the help of his spy agency or the New Scotland Yard, Major John Tarrant wisely patches things up with his estranged wife and steals the diamonds from his home office and his spy boss refused to barter with the kidnappers and goes it alone in a wild journey to track down the kidnappers. Major John Tarrant finally catches up with them in the black windmill of the title, and the action is finally reminiscent of a James Bond film but without Sir Michael Caine ever being thought of as anything but a very intuitive spy with more brains than brawn. That Sir Michael Caine is never viewed as a super-spy like in many mainstream blockbuster films, may very well be the reason this exciting and well-made movie surprisingly lost money.
Director Don Siegel was a well-known and well respected film maker and made tough, uncompromising films about men. His best were spawned in the early 70s and featured Eastwood, Matthau and Wayne as toughened men fighting a corrupt system. ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ sits in-between these films in a complementary and slightly esoteric way. It’s not a mob drama, cop fighter or cowboy film; it is, like all those others before it, much more about genre dissolving.
Screen legend Sir Michael Caine is a British secret agent targeted for death by friend and foe alike in this riveting tale of mystery and suspense directed by the great Don Siegel. This breathless story of international intrigue finds a determined Sir Michael Caine taking up the revenge trail when ruthless gunrunners kidnap his young son and demand a king’s ransom in uncut diamonds for the boy’s release. With each new lead, Sir Michael Caine’s chilling quest becomes increasingly deadly as he begins to suspect that one of his colleagues is in league with the merciless abductors. Donald Pleasence as Cedric Harper, Clive Revill as Alf Chestermann, John Vernon as McKee, Joss Ackland as Chief Superintendent Wray and Catherine Schell as Lady Melissa Julyan are among those involved in the spine-tingling, high voltage chase that ends at the infamous Black Windmill. One of the many highlights of ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ is the rousing composed music score by composer extraordinaire Roy Budd.
‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ is a sort of spy film that could be imagined as a James Bond film for the darker early seventies audience. Injecting blackened bodies and suspicious motives outside of a good guy on a mission framework. Sir Michael Caine is restrained as a British secret agent aware of his number being up. Don Siegel also chose to restrain the films villains, making John Vernon slimy and very sleazy, without making him the ultimate evil villain. 101 Films have done this film and Don Siegel, a major service by respecting this film enough to release it, and the film is really edge of your seat and will reward repeat watches!
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Universal Pictures and 101 Films presents us the film ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ with a wonderful Technicolor 1080p image and of course really enhanced with a 2.35:1 CinemaScope aspect ratio. This film would be a massive bonus seeing it in the cinema on a big widescreen screen. This neglected film has a great Blu-ray treatment here. The picture quality is generally great, with lots of fine detail during daylight scenes and pleasing film grain throughout. Night-time scenes suffer a little with a few instances of fluctuation, but these are rare. Outside of a full restoration, I doubt ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ will look much better than this. Please Note: When the film starts with the credits, we get the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, but it only fills three quarters of the screen image, then at precisely 2 minutes and 4 seconds, the film goes to the full width of the screen, very weird? Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Universal Pictures and 101 Films brings us the film ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ with just one standard 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio experience and is clear and punchy in all the right places. The wonderful soundtrack with plenty of subtle but very nicely orchestrated music themes and the quality of the audio track is quite easy to appreciate very much. But what is equally wonderful is the very dramatic and outstanding music film score from the brilliant Roy Budd, especially with the very dramatic music score for certain scenes throughout the film.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Interview with actor Joss Ackland [2021] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 2.35:1] [4:05] Here we get to meet a very old Joss Ackland, which shows you that mother nature has not been kind to him and we find in his home. Joss Ackland informs us the film ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ was not one of his favourite film to appear in, but praises the wonderful director Don Siegel and found that he had a great sense of humour, which Joss Ackland thinks that is the most very important thing to have, especially in the film industry and if you have no humour at all, then you are lost, on top of all that, if you take yourself too serious, forget it, and Joss Ackland informs us he and the director became good friends and found the director to be a great guy, and also Don Siegel discovered the actor Clint Eastwood and the director became his mentor and looked after him as he knew he had a great future in the film industry. Joss Ackland talks about an incident where Sir Michael Caine and himself was in the scene at the hospital and the young boy had been given the drug LSD, and was delirious, and both of the actors suddenly got the giggles and could not stop laughing, so Don Siegel informed them he was going into another room and let him know when they had calmed down, and when the two of them had calmed down, shot the scene and shouted “cut” and informed Don Siegel that they had finished filming the scene, and Don Siegel came back and also shouted “cut” and the director was very happy, and at that point we get to see that actual scene from the film. Joss Ackland informs us that while filming ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL,’ he was doing two other films at the same time and the whole thing was totally exhausting, because the other two films were in different locations in Europe. Joss Ackland talks about the actor Donald Pleasence, where he appeared with this actor in a couple of scenes and found this actor to be a very nice person to work with and comments about the fact in the film he kept touching his moustache and felt Donald Pleasence was attention seeker, and I personally was suspicious about what he was doing and whether his character was a traitor in the film. Joss Ackland talks about when he was acting at the Mermaid Theatre in London and was an associated director with Bernard Miles and Joss Ackland had been given a script for the play “Alfie” which of course the actor Sir Michael Caine was the leading actor in the film version, and Joss Ackland found the script for “Alfie” really good and went on to be a great success for 12 months in London, and funny enough, Sir Michael Caine actually auditioned for the play and Joss Ackland turned him down and of course the irony of it all is that Sir Michael Caine had a massive box office hit with the film ‘Alfie.’ At that point in the interview without warning abruptly finishes and I found that very unprofessional.
Special Feature: Interview with cinematographer Ousama Rawi [2021] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 2.35:1] [20:00] Here we get to meet the cinematographer Ousama Rawi and talks about getting a phone call from the production manager, informing him that she was working on an upcoming film and the director was going to be Don Siegel and Ousama Rawi personally was a big name for a Hollywood director, what was also a Hollywood old timer and has done so many Hollywood films, and especially the massive and successful box office hit ‘Dirty Harry’ and of course starred the up and coming actor Clint Eastwood. Anyway, Ousama Rawi was so delighted to get the phone call and was informed the director was going to be doing a lot of interviews for cinematographers and wanted to include Ousama Rawi for the interview, so an appointment was made with the director and Ousama Rawi was really keen to meet the director. When Ousama Rawi finally met Don Siegel, the director informed him that he had been working with your cinematographers in Hollywood, and was now pleased and very keen that he has come to London to interview older generation of cinematographers and Don Siegel asked Ousama Rawi lots of general questions, and asked him what his work ethic was, and Ousama Rawi replied that he just likes to work and get involved with a project, and especially to do a very professional job, and any challenges that arises, he would be up for it 100%, and in any situation that happens while filming, and then the more fun I have, and at that point the interview between Ousama Rawi and Don Sigel finished, so on leaving the interview, Ousama Rawi did not hink anymore about it, as he did not want to get his hopes up for the job. About two or three weeks later, Ousama Rawi got a phone call from the production manager asking if he was doing any work at the moment, because he was on the short list, and there might be a possibility you might get the job, and was asked if he would be available, and immediately informed her, absolutely, and after a few days had passed, Ousama Rawi was informed that he had got the job and of course was hired for the film ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL.’ Ousama Rawi was really excited to work with Don Sigel and especially working with a top director from Hollywood and before working on the film, decided watched the film ‘Charley Varrick’ [1973] that was directed by Don Siegel and starred Walter Matthau, Andy Robinson, Joe Don Baker and other fellow American actors, and thought the film was absolutely amazing and very clever. Ousama Rawi found the director Don Siegel had a very dry sense of humour and was extremely funny, and Ousama Rawi found that a revelation, especially encountering an American who enjoyed British humour, on top of all that, Don Siegel was very bemused by the British politeness and first found that out when working in Europe, and especially for the first time working in Great Britain and could not understand the British politeness attitude, and being a slightly naïve Don Siegel to Great Britain, burst out saying, “What’s the matter with you guys, you are always apologising and especially when you bump into each other, you keep saying sorry, sorry, because we Americans do not work like that in the States, we just say get out of my way,” and again he felt the British were too polite. When Sir Michael Cain was hired for the film, he informed Don Siegel that he had worked with Ousama Rawi on a previous film and said that he was one of the best cinematographer he had ever worked with, and that is why Don Siegel decided to hire Ousama Rawi and was so grateful to Sir Michale Caine’s really nice words he informed the director. Ousama Rawi comments about the actor Donald Pleasence, who had a really bad time in the Second World War and believes the actor was a prisoner of war and in some sort of internment camp, and it affected him a great deal with his experience and is supposed to have some recurring demon nightmares from what happened to him and would not like to talk about it. Ousama Rawi found Don Siegel very easy to work with and most of the time would allow the crew to set up the scene and only now and again would Don Siegel make some sort of comment on how he wanted a certain scene to be shot. Originally the film was going to be called ‘Drabble’ and was based on the book “Seven Days To A Killing” and the way the book was written, in fact you would have to call it “Twelve Days To A Killing,” because it would be impossible to do it in seven days. When the location scout found the location of the two windmills, one was white and the other one of course was black, and it was at Clayton Windmills, south of Burgess Hill, in West Sussex, England and Don Siegel fell in love with that specific location and that is why the film was going to be called ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL.’ On top of all that, they actually used the location, and especially the interior of the windmill, but unfortunately it was very cramped space, and so caused a lot of technical problems when filming, but one serious incident that occurred while filming, is when the nasty guy gets shot in the groin and falls down the steps dead, well of course that particular scene was done by a professional stuntman and with the rehearsals it all went really well, but when it came to the actual shooting of that scene, the stuntman really hurt himself really badly, as he had landed on his head and seriously injured his neck, and of course was immediately rushed off to the hospital, but luckily it turned out to not be too serious injury and the stuntman recovered really well. Ousama Rawi says that again everything was filmed on location, but the only scene that was specifically set up, was where they filmed the vats of wine, and the vat that exploded and gushed out with all that wine was set up by the special effects team. At that point the interview finishes abruptly, and again I found that very unprofessional.
Theatrical Trailer [1974] [480i] [1.37:1] [2:14] This is the original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL,’ where they inform us “The ultimate exercise in controlled terror.” Unfortunately it is only shown in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio and is a really bad grainy image, but despite this, it is a really brilliant and dramatic trailer presentation.
BONUS: Reversible printed Blu-ray cover featuring alternate artwork for the film.
Finally, ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ is a spy thriller where enemies stalk in every corner, hiding in the shadows. Major John Tarrant must do battle against friend and foe to save his son, and the veneer of the former army officer wears thin. Don Siegel’s film is a twisty and compelling espionage drama. Sir Michael Caine, as usual, eats up every scene and the writing cleverly serves up a number of red herrings. ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ is an entertaining ride. One thing ‘THE BLACK WINDMILL’ really had going for it was the cinematography by Ousama Rawi, who talks for roughly 20-minutes about his overall experience behind the scenes while divulging a little insight into Donald Pleasence’s approach to acting. Ousama also recounts an unfortunate accident while filming inside the film’s titular location, making note of the dangers stunt performers can face when working without pre-fabricated set pieces. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
