The Black Windmill

The Black Windmill is a 1974 British spy thriller directed by Don Siegel and starring Michael Caine, John Vernon, Janet Suzman and Donald Pleasence The screenplay by Leigh Vance is based on Clive Egleton's novel Seven Days to a Killing. The story involves a British secret service agent, John Tarrant (Caine), involved in the investigation of an international arms syndicate. Tarrant's son (Moss) is kidnapped and held to ransom, leading 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 Aldwych and Shepherd's Bush tube stations. A section of the film was also shot at Pegwell Bay, Ramsgate Hoverport, where Tarrant makes his way across the channel and sneaks onto the back of a bus which is on board the hovercraft Sure, this was in order to pass back through customs undetected so that British intelligence was not aware of his locality - this is one of the most misunderstood parts of the film and hence has been reported on the website Rotten Tomatoes with a 45% audience ranking (March 2012).

The film was a commercial failure in 1974 with its complex and dynamic plotline, however more recent audiences may have read deeper into the complex storyline to make the connection between the British detective and underlying story of the kidnap. It is also rumoured that a portion of the film was cut in order to cut down the running time of the film, in which Cedric Harper, Donald Pleasence's character, tries to keep up with Tarrant in order to stop him taking the diamonds from the bank, also a scene at the end of the film in which Drabble and his henchman are discovered by Cedric Harper.