Mission implausible

Rating: 5/10 (5 January 2020)

Where Eagles Dare was created by Alastair Maclean as a vehicle for Richard Burton, who asked producer Elliott Kastner to find him 'some super-hero stuff for me where I don't get killed in the end'.
Maclean came up with a plot which, though having nothing to do with real life, is at least clever, taking unexpected twists and turns. But it has to be said he didn't depart too far from his first major war movie success, The Guns of Navarone. The scenery and the mission impossible by a motley group of commandos are different, but as in Guns there be a traitor in their midst... Admiral Rolland (Michael Hordern), one of the two senior officers putting the operation together, mutters that it can't possibly succeed, just like his counterpart James Robertson Justice in the earlier film.
Burton, who was aged 45 when the film came out, is obviously too old for the part, but can you be miscast in a film which is your vehicle? His lines are almost entirely made up of exposition or words of command barked grumpily at Eastwood. The heroes mow down scores of German soldiers without aiming their machine guns or being hit themselves (to be fair, Burton cuts his hand closing a door). They seem to know exactly where and when to be at any time as if connected by telepathy. The haircuts and make-up are 1960s, just like the helicopter which lands in the Schloss at one point.
At least the stuntmen did a good job: the famous cable car scene is definitely the highlight of the film (weighing in at an interminable two and a half hours), though that's not saying much.
Where Eagles Dare has aged badly. I can accept it can be enjoyed as undemanding entertainment: but only if you turn a blind eye to the improbability of the action, the one dimensional characters, the mostly wooden acting and the complete absence of any wit or interest in the dialogue.