Synopsis
Great Britain, 1944, during World War II. Relentlessly pursued by several MI5 agents, Henry Faber the Needle, a ruthless German spy in possession of vital information about D-Day, takes refuge on Storm Island, an inhospitable, sparsely inhabited island off the coast of northern Scotland.
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Cast
- Donald SutherlandFaber
- Kate NelliganLucy
- Ian BannenGodliman
- Christopher CazenoveDavid
- Faith BrookLucy's Mother
- Barbara EwingMrs. Garden
- David HaymanCanter
- Alex McCrindleTom
- Philip Martin BrownBilly Parkin
- Stephen MacKennaLieutenant
Recommendations
- 80
The New York Times
An ambitious, energetic thriller that stops short of real excitement for reasons that are hard to pinpoint. It's an entertaining movie, and an extremely well-acted one. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
I admired the movie. It is made with quiet competence, and will remind some viewers of the Hitchcock who made “The Thirty-Nine Steps” and “Foreign Correspondent.” - 75
TV Guide Magazine
A gripping, old-fashioned WWII spy thriller. - 70
Variety
It’s a good yarn, remindful of some of Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang’s wartime mellers as well as Michael Powell’s 1939 tale of a World War I German agent in Scotland, The Spy in Black. - 60
Time Out
On an afternoon as wet as those on the island, the film would pass the time agreeably, nothing more. - 60
CineVue
Richard Marquand opts largely for more intimate surrounding and manages to squeeze out some memorable moments of Hitchcockian suspense and tension. - 60
Washington Post
The oddity of this romance and its picturesque setting do a great deal to lend interest to an otherwise minimal (for a spy picture) story. [24 July 1981, p.19] - 50
Time
As a bestseller, this was a good read, but on film, the crimes the Needle commits on his escape route are so psychopathically gory that he is rendered loathsome. Sutherland's sometimes effective stillness, and some routine direction, are also offputting. On the other hand, Nelligan's anguish is quite touching; she grants the film's final passages a certain suspenseful, almost redeeming, grace.
