Tonight's Movie: Where Eagles Dare (1968)

Over the last few years I've gradually been filling in my Clint Eastwood viewing, and this week it was finally time to see one of my husband's favorite Eastwood films, WHERE EAGLES DARE (1968).

It's a World War II movie in which a group of British commandos plus an American Army ranger (Eastwood) are tasked with breaching an impregnable mountaintop castle to rescue an American brigadier general (Robert Beatty). The brigadier general, who has vast knowledge of Allied plans to invade Europe, was captured after his plane crashed.

After the small group of men parachute into Germany, a woman (Mary Ure) emerges from the plane's shadows and jumps in after them. Her presence in Germany is known only to the mission leader, Major Smith (Richard Burton).

Two of the commandos die mysteriously, and as the mission moves forward it becomes clear that much more is going on than "simply" rescuing the brigadier general from the castle.  Smith, in particular, seems to be playing multiple games of chess simultaneously.

I won't go any further than that discussing the plot; suffice it to say it has twists and turns which should be discovered by first-time viewers when watching the film.

I enjoyed the movie quite well, though it had some flaws, the biggest issue being an overly padded running time of 2 hours and 38 minutes.

There are so many shots of people running around the castle firing guns and planting bombs that trimming down those scenes alone could have shaved several minutes from the film. It's a meaty story but it needed to be at least 10 minutes shorter, and maybe more.

Most of the special effects and stunts are good but a couple of the process shots, it must be said, are pretty bad. Other than those awkward scenes, the mountain cable car scenes were fun and reminded me of NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (1940).

Also "off" are the women's hairstyles, as was the case with many '60s war films and Westerns -- though the anachronistic hair isn't quite as bad as in some other films of the era. (Susannah York in BATTLE OF BRITAIN is but one example.)

What made the movie fun was the intricate plotting, scripted by Alistair MacLean from his own novel. Though perhaps another writer would have been a little more ruthless about trimming down the story...!

I enjoyed the repartee between Burton and Eastwood and also appreciated that a pair of women (Ingrid Pitt, along with Ure) play key roles, demonstrating remarkable bravery. It was fun to watch it all unfold before arriving at a satisfying ending.

The movie is bloodier than some '60s films I've seen, but at the same time not so overdone that it was hard to watch.

The movie was directed by Brian G. Hutton, with Yakima Canutt directing the second unit. The widescreen cinematography was by Arthur Ibbetson.

The large supporting cast includes Michael Hordern and Patrick Wymark.

I watched the film via a nice-looking DVD originally released in 2010.

All in all this was an enjoyable, worthwhile film. And having now watched WHERE EAGLES DARE, can KELLY'S HEROES (1970) be far behind?

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