Where Eagles Dare (1968) on Netflix
In 1944, Major John Smith leads a commando team into the Bavarian Alps, Lieutenant Morris Schaffer among them. Their target is Schloß Adler, where the Germans hold an American general.
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Trailer
Plot summary
MI6 officers Admiral Rolland and Colonel Turner assemble a commando team under Major John Smith to free American Brigadier General George Carnaby, a planner for the invasion of Europe, from Schloß Adler. The fortress stands on an alpine peak in Bavaria and can be reached only by cable car. Smith's men drop by parachute near the castle dressed in German uniforms. Among them is Lieutenant Morris Schaffer, an American Ranger puzzled at being sent along. Their radioman, Sergeant Harrod, is found dead in the snow. Sheltering in an empty farmhouse, Smith slips away to meet Mary Ellison, who jumped from the plane unseen by the others.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Stuntman Alf Joint, who had played Capungo, the man 007 electrocuted in the bathtub in Goldfinger, doubled and stood in for Richard Burton and performed the famous cable car jump, during which he lost three teeth. At one point Burton was so drunk he knocked himself out while filming and Joint had to fill in for him.
- The Junkers Ju 52 used to fly Smith and Schaffer's team into Austria and make their escape at the end of the film was a Swiss Air Force Ju 52/3m, registration A-702. It was destroyed in an accident on 4 August 2018 in Switzerland, killing all 20 people on board.
- Further delays were incurred when Richard Burton, well known for his drinking binges, disappeared for several days with his friends Peter O'Toole, Oliver Reed, Trevor Howard and Richard Harris.
- Derren Nesbitt observed that Burton was drinking as many as four bottles of vodka a day. Visitors to the set included Burton's wife Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Shaw, and at one point during filming Burton was threatened at gunpoint by an overzealous fan.
SPOILER
Nesbitt was injured on set while filming the scene in which von Hapen is killed: the blood squib attached to him exploded with such force that he was temporarily blinded, though he made a quick recovery.- Eastwood and Burton reportedly dubbed the film 'Where Doubles Dare' because of how much screen time stand-ins had during the action sequences. Filming ran in Austria from 2 January 1968 to July, with Eastwood paid $800,000 and Burton $1,200,000.
- Ingrid Pitt had spent part of her childhood in a concentration camp and reportedly found it uncomfortable to work on the movie.
