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 .

nat_mann Implausible plot. Cheesy special effects. One of the worst acted films I have ever seen. Stand wooden faced, then scowl and shout. Over and over. Given the caliber of the actors and since they were all doing it, I have to blame the director. Unwatchable. I gave it a two because it was not actively offensive, just really, really bad.-------------"And wasn't that Richard Attenborough playing the jeweler visited by the two men from New Scotland Yard"I thought the exact same thing. It was the highlight of the movie. Too bad he wasn't in the rest of the movie. He must have read the script.

CatoTSR2 Yet another Bond/Harry Palmer homage' or pastiche in parts. The Black Windmill has now become a Don Siegel timeless classic. Overshadowed by miles by Dirty Harry in its day, TBW was a rough diamond twinkling in its wake. Fabulous casting unparallelled and the acting was timed and placed to the second. This movie based on the Egleton novel was true to form in all areas. The story of the Whitehall spook having his son kidnapped while bosses had their own mits in the pot, is compelling and addictive. The film theme score in fairness appears to be a transposed rehash of Fear Is The key (Alastair Mclean) However the genius of Roy Budd is allowed these minor trivialities in such circumstances. Caine is sheer brilliant in his usual manner in these roles, along with Suzmann/Vernon and a whole host of luvvies that went on to stellar TV careers this really is a great "Cribs" movie.

Theo Robertson Roger Ebert amongst others expressed their disappointment at THE BLACK WINDMILL on its release . Much of this disappointment is down to the director being Don Siegel who directed many famous thrillers including INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS , DIRTY HARRY and CHARLEY VARRICK . He is a director well suited to high concept American thrillers but there's something so very stiff upper lip and British about the mis-en- scene of THE BLACK WINDMILL . Someone's son gets kidnapped and his parents discuss it like one of their goldfish has died . You'd think such things as guilt and recriminations would feature heavily but apparently Brits are even less emotional than the pod people in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS There's also a few very , very large plot holes throughout the movie one of the largest of which takes place in the opening sequence . Two young boys go to an airfield to fly their model plane . How earth did the villains know that the children would be appearing at that location ? Probably because if they didn't the film would have started in a completely different way or may not have started at all . When you've got a big name director it's interesting how many people pay no attention to the narrative