Good plot, good action

Rating: 7/10 (26 September 2014)

The plot is certainly twisty and is one of the best of the military spy genre. Certainly Alistair McLean deserves all the credit for that. It was great to watch as a kid.
For adults, however, there are uncomfortably many mistakes for my liking.
According to the briefing, Schloss Adler is in Bavaria. Later at the foot of Schloss Adler, we hear Major Smith tell the blonde agent, played by Mary Ure, that Carnaby's plane crashed near Oberhausen airfield, "a few miles from here". But Oberhausen, which does exist, is located at the other end of the country, near the Dutch border, so cannot possibly be the nearest airfield to any castle in Bavaria.
Whereas the Germans did have helicopters early in the war, the one that lands in the castle grounds is too modern by far and bears no resemblance to the early German models. Although this helicopter miraculously reverts to a credible model after landing. I suppose they couldn't get a working version of a WWII copter that flew and didn't opt for a model one in the air - but the difference is striking.
The handguns don't have a big enough silencer (need to be about 7 inches long and 1.5 inches wide) and the machine guns have no shoulder stock of any kind - WWII hand-held machine guns always used a shoulder stock, otherwise the gun would fly back at its user with all the momentum of the stream of bullets and be of no practical use. Also those used by Clint and Mary have no magazine - given the amount of ammunition fired it would take several reloads of a magazine and enough ammo needs to be taken along of course.
But the mistake that dominates for me, is Richard Burton's haircut - it is just way too long for a WWII German Officer - in reality he would have blown his cover instantly, waltzing into the German barracks with that haircut. The main thing that needed to be avoided is the sideburns - the German officers tended to have a crew cut or at least an absence of sideburns or hair reaching the neck! It might seem a trivial point but it just glares at me throughout the film.
Nevertheless it is well worth watching for the action and suspense and it also has a very memorable score, the title music being reminiscent of Gustav Mahler.