[Inspector Abberline]

The Black Windmill (1974)
No one can deny that Don Siegel has a fantastic body of work behind him... So many great films and far too many to list. But im afraid to say that I found The Black Windmill fairly pedestrian to say the least. It's a sort of cross between Len Deightons spy films and Alistair MacLean's espionage thrillers, both of which seems far removed from Siegels urban crime films or his westerns. For a thriller it's about as slow as the preferable asthmatic snail carrying a fridge up a flight of stairs while chain-smoking his way through a packet of fags. Hard to believe that this is the same director who gave us Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Dirty Harry (1971),and even more unusual is that not even the shouty actor Michael Caine seems to be able to generate any life into the proceedings...(he could have at least blown the bloody doors off or thrown Alf Roberts off the top of a windmill or something)... Cast wise it's a pretty impressive assortment of British character actors including Donald Pleasence and Joss Ackland and with bad guy for hire in nearly every film in the 1970s and early 80s John Vernon. The problem with the film may well be with the story itself, a turgid tale of kidnapping and terrorism that never really seems to get going even right up to the finale where it comes to its rather obvious conclusion. John Vernon does his best to enliven the proceedings and his character is a damn sight more interesting due to Vernon's evil persona and scenery chewing.Donald Pleasence is im afraid totally wasted in a role he could do in his sleep. What makes The Black Windmill so frustrating is that there is a decent film in there somewhere struggling to get out, and if you are a fan of Caine's Harry Palmer movies your kind of hoping for something along the same lines but alas it never even gets close still its better than Jaws: The Revenge but only just.