The characterisation of Tarrant’s wife, Alex is notably inconsistent. Not that the second half isn’t without its flaws. Budd has featured regularly in this blog, most notably for his work on Get Carter and he does his best to enliven proceedings. Roy Budd as composer deserves a good amount of credit for the upturn as well as he delivers some terrific work throughout. As Caine is allowed the opportunity to stretch himself a little more everything unsurprisingly becomes a lot more watchable. There is a definite improvement in the film in the second half as Tarrant is forced to take matters into his own hands to find his son. Whether it’s Derek Newark’s policeman falling completely for an incredibly obvious fake accent and coded conversation between Caine and his wife, the ease at which Tarrant steals the diamonds belonging to MI6 or the agents who try and bug a spy who knows he is under suspicion there are numerous cases of obvious stupidity that first of all place Tarrant under suspicion, but then allow him to go rogue so successfully. MI6, MI5 and the police are all shown to be largely incompetent. The Black Windmill is also a film that very much relies on the stupidity of the majority of its characters. It’s a plan so unnecessary in its intricacy that it even leads to a scene with Tarrant and his wife trying to work out themselves what on Earth the point of it all was. This is most evident as having captured Tarrant, McKee frames him by murdering Ceil only to then stage a breakout in the hope that Tarrant will be killed by the French police and be unable to tell MI6 what he has discovered. The villains McKee and Ceil played by John Vernon and Delphine Seyrig have no real character development and their plans often feel a little overly complicated. With Tarrant initially forced to take a back seat in events Caine’s performance is necessarily understated and despite some nice moments in Pleasance’s performance there is limited material to really engage. Indeed the whole of the first half feels a little pedestrian. One scene in particular as Tarrant meets his superior Harper, played by Donald Pleasance and their conversation is interrupted by a demonstration of a briefcase with a built-in gun by the film’s version of ‘Q’ is directly out of the Bond textbook. Whereas The Ipcress File actively attempted to avoid the cliches of the spy genre created by the James Bond franchise, The Black Windmill follows much more of a familiar pattern. The films, however are very different in their approach. Certainly there is a similarity in Caine’s performance as he portrays Tarrant as a quiet, understated man who is not prone to great displays of emotion in a similar vein to Harry Palmer. With Caine returning to the world of espionage there is an obvious comparison to be made between The Black Windmill and his earlier work in The Ipcress File. Without any help from his superiors he soon finds himself forced to take matters into his own hands to bring his son back safely. After his young son is kidnapped Tarrant finds himself under suspicion from his superiors as the ransom demand happens to be exactly the value of a selection of diamonds MI6 had recently acquired. It isn’t a disastrous film by any stretch and manages some nice moments along the way, but ultimately it never raises itself above the level of a nuts and bolts spy thriller.Ĭaine stars as Major John Tarrant, a former soldier turned spy working for MI6. “If there are things you hate about me Alex be grateful for them now” Major John TarrantĪfter the pure joy of Sleuth it feels like a bit of a comedown following it up with The Black Windmill.
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