The Wild Geese

The Wild Geese is a series of two official motion pictures (The Wild Geese and Wild Geese II), with related novels. An unofficial derivative spin-off was produced in between the films but not released in the US until after Wild Geese II.

### The Wild Geese (1978)

> *"The Dogs of War. The best \*\*\*\* mercenaries in the business."*
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   ***The Wild Geese*** is a British adventure film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen about a group of mercenaries in Africa. Released July 7, 1978 (UK) and November 11, 1978 (US), it stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, and Hardy Krüger. The film was the result of a long-held ambition of its producer Euan Lloyd to make an all-star adventure film similar to The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. The same producer and director were later responsible for The Sea Wolves.

The screenplay by Reginald Rose was based on an unpublished novel titled The Thin White Line by Daniel Carney. The film was named The Wild Geese after the Wild Goose flag and shoulder patch used by Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare's Five Commando, ANC, which in turn was inspired by a 17th-century Irish mercenary army (see Flight of the Wild Geese). Carney's novel was subsequently published by Corgi Books under the same title as the film.

The novel was based upon rumours and speculation following the 1968 landing of a mysterious aeroplane in Rhodesia, which was said to have been loaded with mercenaries and "an African president" believed to have been a dying Moïse Tshombe.

#### Colonel Mike Hoare

Colonel "Mad" Mike Hoare (born Thomas Michael Hoare, March 17, 1919). He is a British-Irish mercenary leader known for military activities in Africa and his attempt to conduct a coup d'état in the Seychelles. The epithet "Mad" Mike Hoare comes from broadcasts by East German radio during the fighting in the Congo in the 1960s. They would precede their commentary with "The mad bloodhound, Mike Hoare".

Hoare was hired as technical adviser for the film The Wild Geese (1978), the fictional story of a group of mercenary soldiers hired to rescue a deposed African president. Colonel Alan Faulkner was patterned on Hoare. At least one of the actors in the film, Ian Yule, had been an actual mercenary under Hoare's command, before which he had served in the British Parachute Regiment and Special Air Service (SAS). Of the actors playing mercenaries, four had been born in Africa, two were former POWs and most had received military training.

#### Plot Summary

A rich and ruthless merchant banker Sir Edward Matheson (Stewart Granger) seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator, General Ndofa, in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader, Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona). IMDb.com

Allen Faulkner (Burton), a British mercenary and former army colonel, accepts the assignment and begins recruiting 49 mercenaries, including officers he had worked with on previous operations:

* Capt. Rafer Janders (Harris), a skilled military tactician who now works as an art dealer;
* Lt. Shawn Fynn (Moore), an ex-pilot who has been smuggling currency for the London mafia He brings South African Pieter Coetzee (Krüger), a former soldier in the South African Defence Force who wishes to return to his homeland and buy a farm.

#### Notable Cast

* Richard Burton as Colonel Allen Faulkner
* Roger Moore as Lieutenant Shawn Fynn
* Richard Harris as Captain Rafer Janders
* Hardy Krüger as Lieutenant Pieter Coetzee
* Stewart Granger as Sir Edward Matheson
* Jack Watson as RSM Sandy Young
* Frank Finlay as Father Geoghegen
* Kenneth Griffith as Medic Arthur Witty
* Jeff Corey as Mr. Martin
* Barry Foster as Thomas Balfour
* Ronald Fraser as Sergeant Jock McTaggart
* Patrick Allen as Rushton
* Percy Herbert as Keith

### The Wild Geese (novel)

***The Wild Geese*** is a novel by Rhodesian author Daniel Carney published by Bantam Books on November 28, 1978. He originally titled it The Thin White Line, but it went unpublished until its film adaptation The Wild Geese was made.

Carney could not get his novel published until a chance meeting with film producer Euan Lloyd. Lloyd loved the story, about mercenaries in Africa on a mission to rescue a deposed leader, and purchased the rights to adapt it into a film. Carney in return asked for his novel to be published and Lloyd agreed, as he had already had an offer from an American publisher when he had first taken the novel to Hollywood. The novel was finally published as The Wild Geese.

### The Square Circle (novel)

***The Square Circle*** is a novel by Daniel Carney (August 8, 1944 - January 6, 1987) published in 1982. It was adapted as the film Wild Geese II (1985) and then re-released with that title the same year. It was subsequently re-published as The Return of the Wild Geese.

After the success of his novel, The Wild Geese (1977) (originally titled The Thin White Line), Carney was asked by producer Euan Lloyd to write a follow up. Lloyd had already turned The Thin White Line into the hit movie The Wild Geese, and was constantly being asked to make a sequel. At first Carney refused as he just couldn't come up with a premise for the story, Lloyd wouldn't be put off and suggested the theme could be the rescue of Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in West Berlin.

### Code Name: Wild Geese (1984)

> *"This is a corporation of businessmen... Their business is war. For them, the jungle and the city are the same."*
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    ***Code Name: Wild Geese*** is a West German-Italian Euro War film directed by Antonio Margheriti and first released in West Germany on October 5, 1984. Released in the US in September 1986, it stars Lewis Collins in the first of their three mercenary war films. The others are Commando Leopard (1985) and The Commander (1988). Despite the film's title, Codename Wildgeese is not the sequel to The Wild Geese film, but a derivative film. Kim Newman described the film as closer to the director's films such as The Last Hunter and Cannibal Apocalypse.

#### Plot Summary

Commander Robin Wesley (Collins), leader of a group of mercenaries, go to the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia to overthrow the dictator, who is a major manufacturer and dealer of the world's opium. IMDb.com

The story follows the much the same line as The Wild Geese; as the survivors get fewer and fewer, it is left to Wesley to act out his revenge.

#### Notable Cast

* Lewis Collins as Captain Robin Wesley
* Lee Van Cleef as China
* Ernest Borgnine as Fletcher
* Klaus Kinski as Charlton

#### Soundtrack

The score of the film is Jan Nemec and performed by German progressive rock band Eloy

Listen to the Codename: Wild Geese soundtrack on Deezer.

### Wild Geese II (1985)

> *"They're back in the most spectacular rescue mission ever filmed!"*
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    ***Wild Geese II*** is a British action-thriller film directed by Peter Hunt, based on the 1982 novel The Square Circle by Daniel Carney, in which a group of mercenaries are hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin. The film is a sequel to the 1978 film The Wild Geese, which was also produced by Euan Lloyd and adapted from a novel by Carney. Actor Richard Burton, who starred in the first film as Colonel Allen Faulkner, was planning to reprise his role for the sequel, but he died days before filming began. The sequel has Faulkner's brother (played by Edward Fox) as one of the mercenaries. No characters from the original are featured in the sequel. Burton, and Richard Harris, amongst others, only appear in archive footage.

#### Notable Cast

* Scott Glenn - John Haddad
* Barbara Carrera - Kathy Lukas
* Edward Fox - Alex Faulkner
* Laurence Olivier - Rudolf Hess
* Robert Webber - Robert McCann
* Kenneth Haigh - Colonel Reed-Henry
* Stratford Johns - Mustapha El Ali
* John Terry - Michael Lukas
* Ingrid Pitt - Hooker
* Patrick Stewart - Russian General
* Derek Thompson - Patrick Hourigan

#### Production

The film opens with a dedication to the previous film's lead actor Richard Burton, followed by a brief summary of that film. Burton died days before shooting started on the sequel, and his part had to be quickly recast with Edward Fox as Faulkner's brother.

The 77-year-old Laurence Olivier, who portrayed Rudolf Hess, was in poor health during filming requiring a nurse to accompany him during production. He was also beginning to suffer with memory problems. Hess’s son Wolf Rudiger Hess said afterwards that Olivier’s likeness of his father was "uncannily accurate".

Roger Moore was asked to reprise his role from the first film, but did not like the sequel's script. Lewis Collins claimed he was originally signed to play Haddad due to a contract with producer Euan Lloyd but the role went to the American Scott Glenn.