THE EAGLE HAS LANDED: Blu-ray (ITC 1976) Shout! Factory
Director, John
Sturges officially retired from making movies with The Eagle Has Landed (1976); a smash hit based on Jack Higgins’
novel of the same name. In his impeccable career, it is a fair assessment that
Sturges’ métier was the action film; in later years, specifically focused on
espionage/thrillers set during WWII. The
Eagle Has Landed certainly sent Sturges out on a high note. Famed movie critic, Vincent Canby, almost as
infamous for his snarky putdowns as much as his legitimate critiquing, praised
Sturges for his first-rate built up tension, calling The Eagle Has Landed “a good
old-fashioned adventure…so stuffed with robust incidents…you can relax and
enjoy it without worrying whether it’s plausible.” Indeed, there is much to
recommend the production, including Sturges’ taciturn direction. More on this in
a moment. Tom Mankiewicz's screenplay faithfully borrows the best elements from
Higgins’ quick-witted/sure-footed novel. It’s a rare screenwriter who can
resist the opportunity for embellishment (improving on an author’s work) and
thus, and in general, badly bungle a straightforward translation from print
media to screen adaptation.
Mankiewicz is,
undeniably the exception to this rule and why not? His father, Joseph
Mankiewicz remains justly celebrated as the two-time/back to back Academy
Award-winning director/writer of A
Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All
About Eve (1950); peerless examples of the elder Mankiewicz’s prowess in
both fields of artistic expression. As they used to say, ‘it’s in the genes’ and Tom Mankiewicz had certainly proven this by
1975. Mankiewicz’s recent flourish of success as the writer of three James Bond
pictures (Diamonds Are Forever 1971,
Live and Let Die 1973, The Man With The
Golden Gun 1974) was encouraging to producers, David Niven Jr. and Jack
Wiener, who hired him to adapt the novel. And to The Eagle Has Landed, Mankiewicz brings a certain erudite panache
and cadence. In hindsight, The Eagle Has
Landed is almost as richly satisfying as a character study as it remains a
justly celebrated and action-packed adventure yarn; almost farcical at times;
particularly Larry Hagman’s ridiculously befuddled Colonel Pitts, who, at one
point astutely points out to a subordinate officer, while frenetically passing
the buck, that “If anything happens to
Churchill they’re going to hang you from Big Ben by your balls!” while
leaving the fate of his own scrotum in limbo.
The Eagle Has Landed is equally blessed to have a
distinguished cast. It’s always difficult, if not impossible, to tell a WWII
story where the audience is expected to reside in its sympathies with the Nazis
instead of the allies. Part of this film’s genius is that the Nazis are played
most obviously by well-established British and American actors; Michael Caine,
as decorated Colonel Steiner; Robert Duval (Colonel Radl), Anthony Quayle
(Admiral Canaris) and Donald Pleasance (Himmler). Add to this mix, Donald
Sutherland as the embittered Irish rebel, Liam Devlin – so anti-British he
would rather see the European hemisphere engulfed in flames, simply to serve a
more personal vendetta – and The Eagle
Has Landed is already well on its way to becoming a memorable, if decidedly
fanciful, shaggy-dog story. Passionate people make passionate films, and
Sturges is, perhaps, the most passionate player of them all – or rather, was
for a time in the mid to late 1960’s. That passion seems to have waned somewhat
by the time he agreed to helm The Eagle
Has Landed. Nevertheless, Sturges keeps the mood, tempo and arc of the
story at a critical breakneck pace almost from the moment Radl is summoned into
Himmler’s confidence to begin hatching a plan to kidnap British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill under Hitler’s direct orders.
Author, Jack
Higgins was inspired by certain real life events that took place during WWII;
chiefly, a plot concocted by the Nazi High Command to have Republican Irish
co-conspirators assassinate the Prime Minister. Although history since has suggested none of
this was ever taken too seriously, the reality is Churchill did suspect a plot
afoot against his life and, on occasion had a body double and a voice impersonator
to read some of his most famous and rousing speeches over the airwaves while he
was safely tucked miles away. Where history left off is where Higgin’s artistic
license kicked into high gear. As a novel, The
Eagle Has Landed proved exceptionally clever at blurring fact with fiction;
the film, arguably, even more so, since it presents all this exceptional
hooliganism as high art with a distinct pedigree and authority for feigning
authenticity.
In its
preliminary stages, The Eagle Has Landed
underwent several cast changes; chiefly Michael Caine, who had originally been
slated for the part of Devlin, but became quite nervous at the prospect of a
Brit playing an IRA agent – and a thoroughly malicious one to boot. Richard
Harris, who had cheerfully stepped into the part at Sturges’ behest, developed
cold feet too after reading Mankiewicz’s first draft. At last, Sturges
approached Donald Sutherland as a third substitute. For his part, Sturges would
have preferred to get out of directing the project altogether. Indeed, both Tom
Mankiewicz and Michael Caine would later recall how their director’s verve for
the project inexplicably cooled almost from the moment the film began to shoot,
Caine suggesting in his autobiography that the picture was largely salvaged in
the eleventh hour of the editing process by cutter extraordinaire, Anne V.
Coates who “made it watchable”.
There is,
perhaps, truth to this. For all its’ intrigues, The Eagle Has Landed is nevertheless very unlike Sturges’ other
similarly themed masterworks. There is a pedestrian quality to the angles
Sturges and cameraman, Anthony B. Richmond have chosen for certain pivotal
sequences; Sturges framing his action in relative long shot with the actor’s
moving within frame and doing most of the heavy lifting themselves, but without
the benefit of more effective staging techniques. Coverage is minimal at best,
particularly during dramatic scenes. Still, what matters is the script and the
performances given. These are peerless and prove the movie’s salvation. The
other blessing bestowed on the production is, of course, its exemplary use of
locations; Cornwall for the Channel Islands, and Berkshire for East Anglia. But
the set piece, shot at the implausible pastoral, Mapledurham, is the most
rewarding.
On a limited
budget, production designer, Peter Murton manages a minor miracle, building
several shops and houses full scale, including a 15th century water
wheel adjacent the actual structure and blown up for the movie’s climactic
showdown between the Allied Forces, led by gutsy Captain Clark (Treat Williams)
and Colonel Steiner and his hostage-taking Nazis. Explosive charges were also
skillfully rigged inside the town’s well preserved church, including its bell
tower; its original stained glass windows gingerly replaced with reasonable facsimiles
to be blown out, shot at or otherwise smashed to bits. These elements of full
scale action would later be combined with seamless interiors recreations, filmed
entirely on sound stages at Twickenham Studios.
The Eagle Has Landed opens with rare footage of
Benito Mussolini’s rescue by German paratroopers; presumably the impetus for
Hitler’s fascination with a plot to similarly send in a select group of airmen
to capture Winston Churchill and thus hold him as hostage until Britain
surrenders. It’s a last ditch effort on Hitler’s part to stem the inevitable
defeat of the Third Reich. Hitler is desperate for victory, ordering Admiral
Canaris, via Himmler, to do a feasibility study on this kidnap scenario. But
how does one conduct such a study – especially in complete secrecy? Fearing Himmler is trying to discredit him,
the Admiral falls back on a time-honored principle; passing the buck – placing
his full investigative authority in one of his best officers, the patch-eyed
Oberst Radl. When the pair is informed by an underling officer, Karl (Michael
Byrne) that their central intelligence has decoded a message about Churchill
retiring for a respite to the essentially remote village of Studley Constable
in Norfolk, Radl admits the plausibility of such an absurd plan of action.
Putting together a crackerjack team to pursue this plan, Radl becomes even more
intrigued after he learns one of their sleeper agents, Joanna Grey (Jean Marsh)
is already in place.
Code named ‘eagle’,
the plan will proceed at once; Radl convinced that ‘synchronicity’ equates to
destiny and Himmler, placing his full authority, backed by Hitler, in Radl
without Canaris’ complicity or even his knowledge. It is a dangerous
undertaking, fraught with potential failure and even less alluring in its
repercussions should anything go wrong. Radl recruits Liam Devlin with
confidence. Devlin harbors an innate hatred for the British. Radl has less
success convincing himself of running the idea past highly decorated, but
conflicted anti-Nazi, Fallschirmjäger officer, Oberst Kurt Steiner. Steiner is
a loyalist to the principles that once ruled Germany’s Armed Forces. He has no
use for Nazi thug cruelty. While returning from the Eastern Front with a loyal
troop of his men, Steiner intervenes in the S.S. roundup of Jews being loaded
into box cars en route from the ghettos to the nearest concentration camp. When
one of the teenage Jews (Léonie Thelen) attempts a daring escape, only to be
recaptured by S.S.-Obergruppenführer (Joachim Hansen), Steiner intervenes,
placing the young girl on an eastbound train already departing. Alas, a crack
shot from one of the Nazi soldiers kills the girl and Steiner challenges a
superior officer to explain the senselessness of murdering the innocent and
defenseless. His admonishment is observed as treason to the state and Steiner
is all but sentenced to be court-martialed, and presumably executed, when the
call is made to have him brought in to helm the kidnapping mission.
Rather than
face a firing squad, Steiner and his men transfer to a penal unit on the Channel
Island of Alderney, waging high risk attacks against English convoys. After
some prodding, Radl convinces Steiner and his men to partake in their miraculous
venture. But Devlin incites a minor riot amongst the new recruits by being his
usual obnoxious self. They toss him through the shuttered window of a nearby
pub. Devlin is more mildly amused than sore – both figuratively and literally.
Before long, Steiner, Devlin and the rest of the recruits are parachuting over
Studley Constable from a captured C-47, camouflaged with Allied markings. Posing
as Polish paratroopers, as few can speak English, Steiner and his men begin
their trek into town, quite unaware of a U.S. military garrison only a few
hundred miles up the road.
In Germany,
Radl receives word that the first part of their plan has gone off without a
hitch, proudly relaying this message to Himmler who immediately destroys the
document authorizing Radl’s complete authorization. Hence, if anything goes
wrong from this moment forward, it will be Radl’s head on the chopping block –
not Himmler’s. In Studley Constable,
Steiner and his men move into position, Steiner making contact with Joanna Grey
and faking a cordial, if strained, détente with Captain Clark, who unexpectedly
arrives in town to visit his girlfriend, Pamela (Judy Geeson). Steiner also
befriends the local cleric, Father Verecker (John Standing). Meanwhile, Devlin
meets Molly Prior (Jenny Agutter); an impressionable girl who misperceives
Devlin as her viable escape from an abusive boyfriend, George Wilde (Tim
Barlow). Molly and Devlin quickly fall in love. After cryptically forewarning
the girl of his dishonorable intensions to no avail, Devlin’s initial thought
is to have his way with the girl, then dispose of her when she is of no use to
him.
Alas, it’s all
too perfect to remain status quo. When one of the local village children
accidentally falls into the moat, one of Steiner’s men, Traumer (George Leech)
jumps in to save the drowning girl from being crushed beneath a water wheel.
The girl is saved, but Traumer dies in her place, his body brought up from the
waters with its uniform torn open to reveal a German uniform beneath it.
Steiner takes the villagers hostage, corralling them into the church. Pamela
escapes. Unaware Joanna is a sleeper agent, Pamela races to her house to
forewarn of the Nazi invasion.
Confronted by the truth, Joanna wounds Pamela in the arm; the girl
managing to steal Joanna’s car and make it to the U.S. Army Rangers base where
she informs Clark and his superior, Colonel Pitts of the plot afoot right under
their noses.
Inexperienced
and glory-seeking, Pitts prefers to handle the matter internally, much to Clark’s
chagrin. Arriving at Joanna’s home with only one other soldier, Pitts is almost
immediately murdered before his second can shoot Joanna dead. Clark orders
Steiner to release the hostages. Realizing he must buy as much time as possible
to see their plan through, Steiner agrees to surrender the townsfolk, barricading
himself and his men inside the church. Clark now organizes an aggressive
assault on the church; Steiner and his men firing back in an all-out war
against the American contingent. Casualties are incurred on both sides. At some
point, Steiner’s men agree to sacrifice themselves while Devlin, Steiner and
his wounded second-in-command Neustadt (Sven-Bertil Taube) escape through a
series of underground tunnels with Molly’s aid. By now, Devlin and Molly have
developed an unexpected mutual love for each other.
Steiner and
his cohorts make it to the launch where their escape boat is waiting. But at
the last possible moment, Steiner pulls back from this ‘easy out’ – informing of
his intensions to pursue Churchill on his own. Receiving radioed messages of
the plan’s immanent failure, Radl orders his assistant, Karl to return to
Germany at once. It will spare his life. For Radl is now under arrest,
presumably for treason, and summarily executed by a firing squad with Himmler
already distancing himself from this debacle.
Back in Studley Constable, Steiner manages to avoid capture and sneak up
to the manor house where Churchill is staying. Indeed, it would appear he has
outfoxed even the Americans who, under Clark’s command, are too late to realize
an assassin is in their midst.
Churchill
steps onto the balcony with a stiff drink firmly in hand. Defenseless, he is
confronted and gunned down by Steiner who, moments later, is shot dead by
Clark. Clark is beside himself,
grappling with the enormity of the situation. But Major Corcoran (Maurice
Roëves) is unnerved, calmly explaining to Clark the incident never occurred.
Moreover, the man lying dead on the patio is not Churchill, presently attending
the Tehran Conference, but one George Fowler (Leigh Dilley), a gifted
impersonator who assumed the part of the Prime Minister with full comprehension
of the ramifications to his own safety beforehand. Knowing only bloodshed and
tears can come from their association Devlin quietly evades capture, leaving a
lyrical love letter for Molly to discover before disappearing into the night.
As WWII cinema
fiction, The Eagle Has Landed is
immensely satisfying in much the same way 1961’s The Guns of Navarone managed to retain its air of believability
with an impeachable straightforward approach to its narrative and impregnably
entertaining façade. Herein, the cast deserves the honors, selling their fanciful
wares, moreover, with an air of ‘factual’ legitimacy. There’s just enough
authenticity attached to this bizarre exercise to make it seem genuine and
marginally plausible; even more passion expended by Michael Caine and Donald
Sutherland in their respective roles. Interestingly, Caine doesn’t attempt a
German accent; forgivable, and far better than the alternative; affecting a
laughably bad one, as co-star Robert Duvall does with hideously disconcerting
results. Donald Sutherland’s Irish brogue is spot on, and Treat Williams and
Larry Hagman have considerable fun playing the traditionally ‘ugly American’
blunderers, who daftly avert total catastrophe in spite of themselves. The Eagle Has Landed may not be
director, John Sturges’ finest hour, but it passes the mustard as an
intelligently wrought and deftly executed action/adventure movie. Good, if not
great, it deserves a second chance on home video.
Shout! Factory
provides just such an opportunity in this mostly pleasing 1080p transfer
derived from archived elements preserved by ITV Studios. Like the movie itself,
the results are good, if not great. Color fidelity is generally solid, although
there are a few instances where flesh tones become unstable, waffling between
ruddy orange and soft pink. On the whole, these moments are brief and do not
distract. But they are present and accounted for nonetheless. Contrast is solid
throughout and film grain is natural. Light speckling does not distract as much
as the telecines wobble in a few very brief scenes. Colors, on the whole, are
less than robust and infrequently, downright pale. Apart from a few softly
focused moments, the overall impression is razor-sharp and crystal clear with
fine detail looking spectacular.
The 2.0 DTS
audio is remarkably subtle with excellent fidelity, Lalo Schifrin’s thrilling
score sounding exceptionally solid for a mono mix. Extras are fairly unimpressive; a vintage ‘reflection’
on the making of the film; a much too short and truncated featurette that
returns to Mapledurham to see how things have changed – or rather, have
remained practically the same since the movie was made; another featurette with
the late (and sorely missed) Tom Mankiewicz, musing about his contributions,
and finally, a trio of vintage shorts, plus the original theatrical trailer.
Again, good, but not great extras. Bottom line: The Eagle Has Landed is solidly crafted entertainment. In a league
with other movies of its ilk it doesn’t quite rise like cream to achieve A-list
status. Then again, it isn’t all that far behind the pack either. Enjoy the
movie and buy this disc with confidence. Good stuff all around!
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
3.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
3
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