One of the best WWII movies of all time

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2017)

"Where Eagles Dare" isn't only one of the best WWII movies of all time it is also one of the most entertaining, and in addition it also the best adaptation I've seen of Alistair MacLean's work since "The Guns of Navarone" (1961). At the time this movie was in production Richard Burton's career was in a downward spiral due to the box office failure of many films including "Doctor Faustus" (1967) and "The Comedians" (1967) (of which these two films he did with then wife Elizabeth Taylor). So Burton badly needed a hit and even though he didn't like war movies he did this because he wanted to revitalize his film career by doing an action movie in close coordination with MacLean and producer Eliot Kastner. Thus the movie was made and Burton got his box office hit. Burton plays the title role of British army Major John Smith who is in charge of a mission to go to the Nazi "Castle of the Eagle" dressed up as Nazis in order to rescue an American General (Robert Beatty) who is held prisoner, while dressing up as Nazis. The person on the team that Smith trusts the most is an American army Lieutenant named Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) who is totally confused as to why he is involved with the mission, the rest of the team consists of Brits and is allied with two women Mary Ellison (Mary Ure) and a woman named Heidi (Ingrid Pitt) who pose as Germans in order to infiltrate the castle. The movie was directed by Brian G. Hutton who would direct Eastwood again in "Kelly's Heroes" (1970) two years after this movie was released. Burton and Eastwood give one of their best performances of their respective careers, and MacLean's screenplay really kept me in suspense as well as shock with the amount of major plot twists which are too important for me to spoil in this review. The movie does have echoes of other World War II classics such as "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), "The Great Escape" (1963), and "The Heroes of Telemark" (1965), and like those films this one was truly Oscar level thanks to Hutton's expert direction made this movie the masterpiece that it truly is. This is one of 1968's finest films.