Donald Seymour
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Bumpy Chip
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
dbdumonteil
Under the spreading chestnut tree When I held you on my knee, we were happy as can be Under the spreading chestnut tree.Under the spreading chestnut tree I'll kiss you and you'll kiss me Oh how happy we will be Under the spreading chestnut tree" They say the chestnut tree symbolizes honesty ,charity and justice.So this song which could seem somewhat irrelevant over the cast and credits and is heard again in the last scene (sung by a school children choir).And if the message is not clear enough ,the letters of the credits are written on small cubes and when they are in trouble,Caine and his wife take the pseudos of Mr Trapp and Maria,cause they've seen "the sound of music" four or five times with their abducted child . Many things will remind you of "the man who knew too much" (essentially second version) ,even a song plays the role of "que sera sera" .A good private joke even mentions Sean Connery ,future co-star of Caine in "the man who would be king" In spite of the run of the mill plot,Don Siegel makes the best of it ,with strong scenes and an accelerated tempo :the opening sequence ,with the "military" men, gives the jitter ;Delphine Seyrig,an extremely talented French actress famous for her parts in Demy's Truffaut's and Bunuel's movies finds here her first part of a villainess.Hear how she smoothly speaks!She was fluent in English so she was not dubbed! ,fortunately ! Unlike so many veterans trapped in the seventies ,Don "body snatchers" Siegel carried on with exciting movies:the stunning "beguiled" -which tops both "Harry" and "Escape from Alcatraz" which are not flabby stuff either-"the Shootist" with a terminally-ill John Wayne .
ctyankee1
I watched this movie and at first I was going to stop. There is swearing in the first 10 or 15 minutes and after that no more. Michael Caine is a good actor who is some kind of secret agent whose son is kidnapped for money and diamonds. He goes to great lengths to get the government officials to help him get his son back who about 10 years old but they refuse to give him the diamonds. Then he does what a good father does. He snoops around his bosses offices finds the info he needs and get the diamonds out of a safe deposit box.He then has to meet up with the criminals who get lots of joy causing pain to people they capture or need. His son is heard screaming in calls to him in pain. Michael Caine is on the run from bad and good people. Lots of physical stunts. Very violent movie, I could not wait for it to be over but it was a good movie full of action and intrigue.Warning>>> in one of the scenes a woman takes off her coat is nude and proceeds to lay in a bed. Her boss takes a picture of her to make it look like MC is a compromised agent. Michael Caine is a good man and does not know the picture is taken in his room. The crime team leaves other things to make him look guilty to his boss and the police.
Marlburian
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.
JasparLamarCrabb
Don Siegel goes to Europe and makes a terrific thriller...or at least a mostly terrific thriller. When British spy Michael Caine finds his son kidnapped, he's charged with coming up with some black market diamonds as ransom. Caine is great, if a bit too somber...even before he's told of the kidnapping! The always interesting John Vernon and Delphine Seyrig are the kinky kidnappers and Donald Pleasence is Caine's anal retentive boss. Janet Suzman is Caine's VERY angry estranged wife. THE BLACK WINDMILL is taut and suspenseful for most of its run, unfortunately Siegel forgot to include an ending so he simply has Michael Caine explain it.
