Eye of the Needle (movie)

Eye of the Needle
Directed by	Richard Marquand
Screenplay by	Stanley Mann
Based on	Eye of the Needle 1978 novel by Ken Follett
Produced by	Stephen J. Friedman
Starring	Donald Sutherland Kate Nelligan Christopher Cazenove
Cinematography	Alan Hume
Edited by	Sean Barton
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Production company	Kings Road Entertainment
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	24 July 1981 (1981-07-24) (U.S.)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$17.5 million

Eye of the Needle is a 1981 British spy movie directed by Richard Marquand and starring Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan and Christopher Cazenove. Written by Stanley Mann, it is based on the 1978 novel of the same title by Ken Follett.

Plot

The movie is about a deadly German Nazi spy named Henry Faber in the United Kingdom during World War II, who discovers vital information about the upcoming D-Day invasion and his attempt to return to Germany and tell Hitler about it, so that Nazi Germany stops the invasion from happening. While waiting for a German U-boat to pick him up and return to Germany with the top secret information, he is stranded with a family on the isolated (fictional) Storm Island, off the coast of Scotland. There he spends time with a young woman named Lucy, her bitter crippled husband David who was an RAF fighter pilot before his car accident and their toddler son Joe. He develops an intimate relationship with Lucy, but her husband is already suspicious of this new stranger.

Cast

• Donald Sutherland as Henry Faber
• Kate Nelligan as Lucy Rose
• Christopher Cazenove as David Rose
• Ian Bannen as Inspector Godliman
• Stephen MacKenna as Lieutenant
• Philip Martin Brown as Billy Parkin
• George Belbin as Lucy's Father
• Faith Brook as Lucy's Mother
• Barbara Graley as David's Mother
• Arthur Lovegrove as Peterson
• Barbara Ewing as Mrs. Garden
• Patrick Connor as Inspector Harris
• David Hayman as Canter
• Alex McCrindle as Tom
• John Bennett as Kleinmann
• Sam Kydd as Lock Keeper
• John Paul as Home Guard Captain
• Bill Nighy as Squadron Leader Blenkinsop
• Jonathan and Nicholas Haley (twins) as Joe (David and Lucy's son)
• Allan Surtees as Colonel Terry
• Rik Mayall as sailor on train

Production

The Storm Island scenes were shot over eight weeks on the Isle of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides. The rest of the movie was shot in Yateley, Surrey, and in London.

Reviews

The movie got very positive reviews from movie critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of critics gave the movie positive reviews.

Other websites

• Eye of the Needle on IMDb
• Eye of the Needle at the TCM Movie Database
• Eye of the Needle at AllMovie
• Eye of the Needle at Rotten Tomatoes
• Eye of the Needle at Box Office Mojo