Only now does it occur to me... THE BLACK WINDMILL (1974)

Only now does it occur to me... that while THE BLACK WINDMILL is known for being a much-maligned Don Siegel flick featuring a bored Michael Caine as a British secret service agent who is (supposedly) acting with urgency to rescue his kidnapped son:

"I have a particular set of skills....skills I have acquired over a very long career... skills that make me a nightmare for people like you... but if you want to see them in action, you'll have to give me a better motive than kidnapping my dumb son"

 that while it is known for co-starring a malevolent John Vernon (in a rare non-school principal role):

that while it is known for an azz-kickin', trumpet-funk '70s soundtrack by Roy Budd, and that while it is known for wasting as much wine as Stanley Kubrick wasted fake blood on the elevator scene from THE SHINING:

REDRUM.... TOLREM

...it really ought to be known as the premiere venue for Donald Pleasence to fondle a fake mustache with impunity.


He just can't 


keep his hands  


off the damn thing 


it's practically pathological, and,

  
in reacting to it, I think Michael Caine affords it more acting headspace than the concept of his kidnapped son. 

 
The only time Donald's not touching it is when he has a broken arm and both hands are fully preoccupied.

Also, I guess it bears mentioning that there's a scene near the end set at a windmill. But the windmill's not black, and there's nothing particularly meaningful about it.

It'd be like if Don Siegel called DIRTY HARRY "THE OLD QUARRY" or INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS "THE HIGHWAY OVERPASS."

Film Review: GET CARTER (1971, Mike Hodges)

Stars: 4.8 of 5.
Running Time: 112 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry (THEATER OF BLOOD, REPULSION), Britt Ekland (THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, THE WICKER MAN), John Osborne (writer, LOOK BACK IN ANGER, TOM JONES, LUTHER), Godfrey Quigley (the Prison Chaplain in CLOCKWORK ORANGE). Score by Roy Budd (THE STONE KILLER).
Tag-line: "What happens when a professional killer violates the code? Get Carter!"
Best one-liner: [Caine hands money to a friend who's been brutally beaten, and it's Caine's fault]: "Here, go get yourself a course in karate. "

GET CARTER is brutality. Indifference. It's coal slag, grubby beaches, crumbling brick, crusty wallpaper, peeling paint- it's a catfight between two overweight women on the dingy tile floor of a hole-in-the-wall pub. A rotten world presided over by gloomy, overcast skies.

The people below begin to all look the same, their faces melding; their eyes acting not as mirrors for the soul, but merely 'piss holes in the snow.' Groaning and mumbling, they work, they fuck, they drink, they torture, they kill, they die. Pain and pleasure become the same.

Michael Caine is Carter, a London gangster who's come to Newcastle to unravel the mystery of his brother's death.

He plods and trudges and slogs his way to the finish line, his detached countenance masking pure, unadulterated rage. He wears a black trench coat, reads Raymond Chandler, drinks bitters, and behaves as if he is not surrounded by people at all, but rather troublesome, encumbering vines and nettles, which must be hacked and slashed away with nil remorse. An army of marching children play on kazoos. Carter, with nary a stitch of clothing, threatens some men on his front stoop with a shotgun. He stares. They stare. The children stare. His impassive gaze is ever present; whether engaging in phone sex, swigging from a bottle, or watching a woman drown.



His fortress cannot easily be penetrated, but his calm is punctuated by swift, ferocious bursts of violence. Occasionally the violence is accompanied by emotion.

John Osbourne, playwright and original angry young man, plays Kinnear, a crooked man in a country manor.

He engages in a battle of wills with Carter. One might not know it was a battle of wills if the sound was muted. This film refuses to spell things out for you, and, in many ways, it remains as inscrutable as its characters. A 70's Eurocrime masterpiece, and clearly one that has been well-studied by everyone from yakuza maestro Takeshi Kitano to Steven Soderbergh.

In a similar vein, I also recommend THE OFFENCE, ROLLING THUNDER, HARDCORE, THE LIMEY, CHARLEY VARRICK, SONATINE, BROTHER, and POINT BLANK.

-Sean Gill