• Directed by Brian G. Hutton
• Starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Ingrid Pitt, and Derren Nesbitt
• Screenplay by Alistair MacLean
• Based on the novel Where Eagles Dare, by Alistair MacLean
• Distributed by MGM
• Running time: 155 minutes
• Released on March 12, 1969 (U.S.)
• Earned $6.5 million at the box office, making it the 13th most popular film in the U.S. that year

The Story

Set during the latter days of World War II, Where Eagles Dare follows a team of British commandos led by Major John Smith (Richard Burton) to rescue American General George Carnaby (Robert Beatty) from the Schloss Adler, a fortified castle high atop a mountain in the Bavarian Alps.

Though most of the team is British, a U.S. Army Ranger named Lt. Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) has somehow found himself included. Right from the start, the mission appears doomed when the team's radio operator, Harrod (Brook Williams), is mysteriously killed while parachuting behind enemy lines. Smith quickly surmises that Harrod was murdered by one of the other commandos.

As the team infiltrates the Bavarian village near the castle, another non-commissioned officer named MacPherson (Neil McCarthy) is mysteriously killed, confirming to Smith and Schaffer that there is a traitor in their midst. Meanwhile, Smith enlists secret team member, MI6 agent and lover Mary Elison (Mary Ure), to get inside the castle with the help of Heidi (Ingrid Pitt), a deep undercover agent posing as a barmaid. Inside the castle, Mary attracts the unwanted attention of Gestapo officer Maj. Von Hapen (Derren Nesbitt), who eventually becomes suspicious of her after realizing she doesn't remember much about living in Düsseldorf.

Outside the castle, Smith and Shaffer are on their own after three other members of their team are arrested by the Nazis. They make a harrowing entrance into the castle atop a cable car and sneak their way inside with Mary's help in order to find General Carnaby. Smith and Shaffer interrupt Carnaby's interrogation by General Rosemeyer (Ferdy Mayne) and Colonel Kramer (Anton Diffring), as well as the three captured members of the commando team (William Squire, Peter Barkworth, and Donald Houston). After taking the Nazis by surprise, Smith turns the tables on Shaffer and pretends to be an agent named Johann Schmidt working for the SS. He then exposes the three captured Brits as German double agents and General Carnaby as an imposter named Cartwright Jones.

The meeting is further interrupted by Maj. von Hapen, who keeps everyone—German officers included—under arrest until he figures out exactly what is going on. But he doesn't have the upper hand for long after Smith shoots von Hapen and the other Nazis dead with an assist by a late-arriving Mary. Smith, Shaffer, Mary, and Jones embark on a daring escape that includes an even more harrowing descending journey on the cable car, followed by an explosive chase en route to their getaway plane aided by booby traps Smith and Shaffer set earlier in the film. Once aboard the plane and safely in the air, Smith confronts Col. Tuner (Patrick Wymark), a high-ranking MI6 officer, and reveals that the entire mission was an effort to reveal him as the real German double agent.

The Production

Though technically an adaptation, Where Eagles Dare was written as a script from an original idea by Alistair MacLean after Richard Burton approached Elliott Kastner looking for his next project. MacLean subsequently wrote the novel at the same time, much the same way that Arthur C. Clarke wrote the science fiction classic2001: A Space Odyssey for Stanley Kubrick.

Because the film required stunt doubles to perform the film's numerous stunt sequences, it's been rumored that Burton and Clint Eastwood jokingly referred to the film as Where Doubles Dare. Director Brian G. Hutton assembled a top-notch team that featured some of the top professionals working in their crafts at the time. The film's famous castle, the Schloss Adler, is really Hohenwerfen Castle in Werfen, Austria. Much of the filming took place in Austria, as well as the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, England.

Bottom Line

Where Eagles Dare is at once a great war movie, a classic espionage film, and a gripping action flick. It was a box office hit thanks to Richard Burton, who was already a major star, and Clint Eastwood, who was rapidly becoming Hollywood's biggest box office earner after emerging as an international star in Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Eastwood would go on to make another classic World War II movie with Hutton, Kelly's Heroes (1970), starring Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, and Donald Sutherland.