Review of Eye of the Needle (1981) by Tony B — 01 Aug 2008

Henry Faber aka "the Needle", has a hankerin' for some shankerin', and shank he does...pretty much everyone.

I wanted to try to write something clever, but how can something clever come from something so boring? Here's the best I can do...

It seems to me that they tried to throw in every ticket-selling element they possibly could. A spy, plenty o' murders, war, a massive storm, a wedding, a cripple, a fire, a character shipwrecked on a remote island, a horridly cliche (and awfully despicable) love affair, an alcoholic, and a little kid.

Though the love story element is by far the most irritating.

The wife of a man confined to a wheelchair, happily cheats on the father of her child with a complete stranger, while the understandably depressed hubby sleeps upstairs. What's more, even after learning that this creepy lover has beaten and thrown her legless husband off of a cliff , she still decides to sleep with him one more time - but not before drugging her child so they can get down in peace. Is this supposed to be romantic? The cheesy music during the cringe-worthy love scenes sure suggests it.

Meanwhile, back in the "spy" side of the story, Sutherland is a good actor, but I just don't buy his performance in this role. And though a ruthless german super-spy with the outcome of the war in his hands, this character would rather picnic with this boring married woman than carry out his duty.

Ridiculous.