eagle droppings

Rating: 5/10 (22 February 2000)

OK, I confess - I used to like this movie. I first saw it in an army movie theater, and the projector bulb blew out just as the bus drove onto the runway. (The projectionist was out for coffee and was damn near hanged when he returned) At the time it provided an enjoyable three-hour respite from duty, but the movie sure doesn't stand up to repeated viewings. A commando team penetrates a mountaintop Gestapo HQ accessible only by tramway, kidnaps a prisoner, and escapes intact after practically blowing it up??? Puh-leeeez. Richard Burton, who I suspect was in his soused period here, sleepwalks through the movie. Clint Eastwood is horribly miscast. Derrin Nesbitt's SS officer is right out of a comic book. The showdown scene in the interrogation room has more twists and turns - all ridiculous - than a bowl of linguine. I admit I still have a soft spot in my heart for this adventure flick, but I can't see myself getting through it again. For fictional WWII yarns, Maclean's "Guns of Navarone" is far superior.