The Black Windmill (1974)

Director:  Don Siegel

Writer:  Leigh Vance, Clive Egleton

Composer:  Roy Budd

Starring:  Michael Caine, Donald Pleasence, Delphine Seyrig, Clive Revill, John Vernon, Joss Ackland, Janet Suzman, Catherine Schell, Joseph O'Conor, Denis Quilley, John Rhys-Davies

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  Seven days to a killing...the ultimate exercise in controlled terror.

Plot:  A British Agent's son is kidnapped and held for ransom.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I'm such a big Michael Caine fan that I'll watch everything he did before 1980.  After then, it's pick and choose time.  This one's OK.   The performances across the board are good.  I particularly liked John Vernon (McKee) as the super good at his job villain.  He had this shit thought out down to the smallest detail...until the end, that is.   The set-up and McKee's fucking with Tarrant (Caine) are most enjoyable.  Of course, it helps to have someone on the inside of the agency to help McKee with his task.   The picture is moving nicely until the final act when the tables are turning and it's a race against time for Tarrant to take care of the bad guy and save his son (all the while being hunted down by his spy agency employer as they suspect he's working for the bad guys) and for the mole to be discovered.  It's this last twenty minute or so of the movie that falls into the typical Hollywood device of "let's hurry and wrap this up".  And it's because of that, I was left underwhelmed.  I don't know what they could've done different but what's there is rushed and unsatisfactory.  But up until then, it's pretty darn good.