Directed by Brian G. Hutton - 1969 Poster
I have read that the movie enjoys a reputation as a classic and is considered by many as one of the best war films of all time. I am not sure I agree. Alistair MacLean, already well-known for his action novels, wrote the dialogue/scenes in just six weeks, calling it Castle of Eagles. The producer, Elliott Kastner, disliked it and changed it to Where Eagles Dare (from the line in Shakespeare's Richard III: the world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch). Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton reportedly dubbed the film Where Doubles Dare, due to the amount of time stand-ins were used. Furthermore, Clint Eastwood initially thought MacLean's script was terrible and most of his lines were handed over to Richard Burton. My main problem with the film was not so much the script (which was merely average) but the implausibilities piled on each other throughout. One accepts artistic licence, but not throughout a film: the fact that not once are they seen by the Germans - climbing up walls, crouching on top of cable cars, moving through the castle corridors; that the escape ropes are always the right length, that the timings are always spot on; where was the cable car operator when they were escaping? It meant me groaning when I should have been enjoying. Several scenes were simply not 'fast' enough to dispel the thoughts of the 'not-possible'!
Burton did it for Elizabeth Taylor's two sons who wanted him to kill not be killed - be a super-hero.
Burton addresses the Nazis and traitors
It is revealing that he disappeared for several days - for yet another drinking binge with his mates Peter O'Toole, Richard Harris and Trevor Howard (only the latter could actually act, in my view). His stunt man, Alf Joint (yes, really!) said that at one point during the filming, Burton was so drunk that he knocked himself out and Joint had to fill in for him. Derren Nesbit also said Burton was drinking as many as four bottles of vodka a day. No wonder he came across as wooden and merely going through the motions. I was also disappointed with the acting standards of Houston, Squire and Barkworth. But, to be fair, there was little they could do to inject character into their cardboard parts. Ure, Hordern and Wymark were a bit better. Diffring and Nesbit did their usual Nazi impressions, quite well.
Hordern and Wymark - the Operation's Planning Team
The movie was premiered at the Empire, Leicester Square on 22 January 1969 with Princess Alexandra in the cinema. It was the 7th most popular film at the UK Box Office in 1969 and 13th in the USA.
So - an adventure film, with some (but not all that many) tense moments and with plenty of killings and explosions. It will not be in my Top Ten of the 50 Great War Films, though.
Doubles' Trouble!
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I haven't done this before, but I thought I'd look up where the main actors were now - mainly deceased, of course! So, here they are/were in order of their deaths:
Patrick Wymark (Colonel Wyatt Turner) 1926-1970 (died aged 44)
Mary Ure (Mary Ellison) 1933-1975 (died aged 42)
Richard Burton (Major John Smith) 1925-1984 (died aged 58)
William Squire (Capt. Lee Thomas) 1917-1989 (died aged 72)
Anton Diffring (Col. Paul Kramer) 1916-1989 (died aged 72)
Donald Houston (Capt. Olaf Christiansen) 1923-1991 (died aged 67)
Robert Beatty (Col. Cartwright-Jones) 1909-1992 (died aged 82)
Michael Hordern (Vice Admiral Rolland) 1911-1995 (died aged 83)
Peter Barkworth (Capt. Ted Berkeley) 1929-2006 (died aged 77)
Ingrid Pitt (Heidi Schmidt) 1937-2010 (died aged 73)
Clint Eastwood (Lt. Morris Schaffer) 1930- (aged 90)
Derren Nesbit (Major von Happen) 1935- (aged 85)
2010 DVD
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