Black Windmill, The (1974)

Major John Tarrant (Michael Caine) is a British secret service agent engaged in an undercover operation to counter the activities of a gang of arms smugglers selling weapons to terrorists in Northern Ireland.

Tarrant is distraught to learn that his young son David has been kidnapped by a gang led by a mysterious Irishman (John Vernon) who want a batch of diamonds worth over half a million pounds for his safe return.

Tarrant’s boss Cedric Harper (Donald Pleasance) has never got on well with Tarrant and even goes so far as to suggest that maybe the kidnapping is an elaborate double-cross hatched by Tarrant himself in order to get hold of the diamonds.

Supported by his wife Alex (Janet Suzman), Tarrant steals the diamonds needed for his son’s safety and attempts to elude his own secret service colleagues and the police long enough to secure the return of his young boy.

Released in some markets as Drabble (the code name for the lead kidnapper).

Maj. John Tarrant
Michael Caine
Cedric Harper
Donald Pleasence
Ceil Burrows
Delphine Seyrig
Alf Chestermann
Clive Revill
McKee
John Vernon
Chief Supt. Wray
Joss Ackland
Alex Tarrant
Janet Suzman
Lady Melissa Julyan
Catherine Schell
Sir Edward Julyan
Joseph O’Conor
Bateson
Denis Quilley
Mike McCarthy
Edward Hardwicke
Jane Harper
Maureen Pryor
Miss Monley
Joyce Carey
Ilkeston
Preston Lockwood

Director
Don Siegel