Eye of the Needle: Scottish Tattie Soup Recipe 🥁🥁🥁🥁1/2

Year Released: 1981
Directed by: Richard Marquand
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, Christopher Cazenove
(R, 118 min.)
Genre: Thriller, Mystery and Suspense

“The War has come down to the two of us.”  Henry Faber to Lucy Rose

This forgotten masterpiece has it all.  A ruthless villain as charming as he is lethal.  A dangerous mission that could alter the outcome of World War II.  And romance, action and intrigue worthy of Hitchcock himself. 

What sets this espionage thriller apart from so many others is the clean and almost austere plot.  We are not overburdened with a plethora of characters, plots and subplots.  And Donald Sutherland anchors the film with his portrait as a driven and cold-blooded killer who can smile and smile and still be a villain.  He can chat up youngsters and widowed landladies with an easy quip, but his stiletto is always ready if his mission is endangered.  A little like Joseph Cotton in Shadow of a Doubt.

Especially now that he has discovered the ruse the English are using to deceive the Germans about their D Day landing plans. 

Nothing seems contrived here, either.  In particular, the characters and the plot ring true, and they are almost Greek in their tragic dimensions.

Based on prolific author Ken Follett’s first bestseller, this film is unlike many spy films.  We always know who the bad guy is, even if his victims do not.  A little like the assassin in 1973’s The Jackal, who was equally charming and lethal, a debonair smooth talker who seduces a woman as well as a gay man merely to secure hideouts when he is on the run. 

For German spy Henry Faber, securing lodgings – as he does when his getaway boat smashes up in a storm and he is stranded on a remote island –is more complicated.  Because it is the lovely Lucy Rose (Kate Nelligan) who opens the door to him, a bedraggled figure who barely makes it to the remote cottage she shares with her husband, David (Christopher Cazenove).

The audience knows a little of the couple’s background from the opening scenes of their wedding four years prior, and what was to be a 24 hour honeymoon with her dashing RAF spitfire pilot.  Their champagne picnic ends in a catastrophic crash that makes David a paraplegic, and a very unhappy one at that, who distances himself from his wife and son with cruel detachment.

So the lovely Lucy is ripe for the warm looks and soulful conversation provided by Henry, who is his charming self, even if his glib answers about why he had taken his craft out in such a terrible storm make David suspicious.

But what ensues is not a pragmatic seduction like the Jackal’s, but a very erotic and heartfelt tryst between Faber and Lucy.  A few snippets of their conversation reveal much.  When he tells her he has realized how unhappy she is, it is as if Lucy, who continually makes excuses for David’s abrupt rudeness, just realizes it herself.  Her sensitive features register first shock and then sad resignation.

Faber compliments her on the tender love she shows her son, but she shrugs it off, saying all parents love their children.

When he begs to differ, saying, some parents only want their children to achieve what they could not, and how they force them into their own well-laid plans, we get a glimpse into Faber’s life that perhaps gives us just a glimmer of empathy for him.

But certainly not enough to forgive not only what he has done, but what he will do to get his message to the U Boat poised to retrieve him from Storm Island.

The last 20 minutes of the film are enthralling, as Faber is unmasked in all his deceit, but steadfast in his real love for Lucy.  It recalls and maybe even outdoes the final scene is the Orson Welles’ 1946 classic, The Stranger.

Certainly not family fare, but a class act all the way. A slow burn that breaks the rules and gets better and better as it goes along.  Not to miss.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁1/2

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

As stated earlier, our German spy is on the run to get some critical information and himself out of England, but his final desperate escape in a terrible storm shatters his boat, washing him up on the desolate Scottish Storm Island.  

When the soggy mess shows up at their door, Lucy and her husband take him in.  Later on, she serves him some soup that he practically inhales.  

Our delicious recipe is for the famed Scottish soup called Tattie, after the nickname for the potatoes that thicken it. 

Although our recipe uses ham shank to flavor the broth, you might want to try a lamb shank instead, since Lucy and her husband run a sheep farm on their desolate island.  

Either way it is simple and delicious.  Enjoy, but don’t fall for any charming strangers who compliment you on it.

Scottish Tattie Soup

Ingredients

Serves: 4

·       2 leeks, white part only

·       4 carrots

·       1 small turnip

·       6 large tatties (potatoes)

·       1 ham shank or 2 ham stock cubes

·       1/2 tablespoon salt, to taste

Directions

1. Slice leeks, carrots and turnip and add to pot. Cut potatoes into small pieces and add to pot. Add ham shank.  (Or use a lamb shank to fit in with our film.)  

2. Add water to cover all ingredients. Bring to the boil, then lower heat and simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes. Add boiling water if it becomes too thick. Stir occasionally to ensure it does not stick to bottom of pot. Add 1/2 tablespoon salt, or to taste, while cooking.

3. 5 minutes before soup is ready remove ham shank. Serve soup with morning rolls or plain bread.

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