WHERE EAGLES DARE: We Mustn’t Cheat the Hangman

Where Eagles Dare (1968) – Directed by Brian G. Hutton – Starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark, Michael Hordern, Robert Beatty, and Ingrid Pitt.

Let me say this right at the start so there’s no confusion: WHERE EAGLES DARE is a very, very good movie, boasting a phenomenal performance by Richard Burton and a still-thrilling and still-massive final action sequence.

But.

But there’s something missing here that can be found in two other Alistair MacLean-derived films (THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, ICE STATION ZEBRA, and even the lesser FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE), and that’s a bit of passion, a bit of energy, a bit of spark provided by one of the characters to help mitigate the long, slow march to the final action sequence. In NAVARONE, this was provided by Anthony Quinn, who’s intensity wonderfully balanced Gregory Peck’s more stately approach to completely the mission. Patrick McGoohan filled this role in ICE STATION ZEBRA, his sharp tongue and rapid talking style countering nicely with Rock Hudson’s calm. And FORCE 10, released a decade later, gives multiple doses of this spark in the performances of Carl Weathers, Richard Kiel, and the constant bickering between Harrison Ford and Robert Shaw’s characters.

What we have then, with WHERE EAGLES DARE, is the least of all MacLean set-ups and the best of all MacLean finishes.

There are relative terms, of course, because none of the MacLean films is ever outright bad. Yet WHERE EAGLES DARE takes far too long to get where it’s going and clumsily sets up and executes the traitor angle.

British Major John Smith (Richard Burton) and American Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) are paired with five other British soldiers to make a daring raid on Schloss Adler, a castle high in the Bavarian Alps, in order to rescue an American general. During their parachute jump, one of the soldiers ends up dead with a broken neck and so we’ve got a mystery of who on the team is the traitor. The problem is that I never believe it’s either Smith or Schaffer and neither Schaffer nor Smith believe it’s each other. That means it’s either an outsider, or one of the five Redshirts, and none of the Redshirts are, in any way, developed.

The film is so interested in following Smith around that it’s far more interested in his mysterious meetings with Mary Elison (Mary Ure) than it is in the killings.

Unfortunately for the opening half of the movie, the film mimics Burton’s laid back, professional cool and thus gives off the impression that there’s nothing to worry about because Smith is always in control. I needed some tension between Smith and Schaffer or some aggressiveness or humor from Schaffer or one of the Redshirts to give the film some tension. Burton and Eastwood are just a bit too similar for me. Perhaps if EAGLES had been Eastwood’s movie and we spent our time following the group’s one American around as he tried to piece together what was going on, the film could have created some more tension.

Here’s the best example of what I mean. The group parachutes into Bavaria and sets up shop in a seasonaly abandoned cabin. There’s a fierce snowstorm going on outside and Smith takes out the radio equipment to contact London when goes, “Oh darn, I must have left the codebook in the dead guy’s jacket. How silly of me. I’ll go get it.”

In a snowstorm.

Without any help.

And he’s the man in charge of the mission.

So he leaves and walks around back, where he meets Elison in the cabin’s barn, makes out with her, and after a little cozy time in the warm barn, heads back to the main cabin. He can’t have been outside for more than a minute or two between the barn and the cabin, which should be obvious when he walks inside as one’s face would look pretty abused being out in a blizzard for an hour. If Schaffer sees it, however, he doesn’t mention it and so there’s no tension created or raised between the two men. They seem oddly trusting of one another. Later, we learn that Smith trusts Schaffer because, as the only American on the mission, Smith knows Schaffer could not have been the British traitor he was sent to root out.

From the plane ride to the cabin to the town located at the base of the castle’s mountain, the action is solid but almost clinical. Eastwood might as well have been played by anyone, because the film doesn’t ask him to do a whole lot at this point – this is Richard Burton’s movie and while he’s always excellent, the rest of the film gets caught just watching him. There’s some movement with Elison as she goes undercover as a member of the castle’s staff but all that does is create a silly infatuation subplot with Gestapo officer Major von Hapen (Darren Nesbitt), which never goes anywhere successfully.

All of the relative sins are forgiven once Smith and Schaffer get to Schloss Adler and Smith reveals himself to be double agent Johann Schmidt (yes, the Red Skull), which comes as a surprise to the three remaining redshirts who are also double agents. Smith lays out this whole scenario about how he’s the real Nazi spy and that the three actual spies are really fakes that the British have inserted in hopes of springing the American general the Nazis have captured. It’s a fantastic scene because it speaks to how dangerous the spy game is – if no one really knows who anyone is, who can you trust? Smith has been pretending to be a double agent so he can put a phone call in to a high-ranking Italian who speaks on his behalf. Smith gets each of the three redshirts to write down a list of known Nazi agents inside MI6 as a means of proving their real identity, but he’s actually doing it so he can learn the identity of those traitors.

We finally get all the pieces of the puzzle laid out – the American general isn’t actually the American general the Nazis think he is, and Smith’s entire mission wasn’t to save him but to expose the British traitors. It’s a fantastic reveal and Burton owns that castle scene, expertly manipulating the Nazi generals, the Nazi spies, and even Schaffer. When von Hapen intervenes and gets shot, it’s all out action from here to the end of the movie and every single inch of film reel is utterly fantastic.

From a massive interior castle battle (does fighting inside Nazi castles ever suck?), the group makes their way to the cable car that provides the only entrance to Schloss Adler from the town below. It’s silly for them to bring the double agents with them as they only prove to make the escape even more difficult, but they take them and the payoff is the legendary cable car battle, which is every bit as good as you’ve heard it is. After the cable car sequence, our heroes jump out of the cable car and into a river that runs into town, and then escapes in a bus. There’s not much in the way of plot through this section, but the film finally comes alive with real energy.

WHERE EAGLES DARE is a conflicted film for me. The ending is far and away the best of the four MacLean-based movies but that long set-up is the worst. It’s still a very, very good opening, but it’s the only time in all of these 2 1/2 hour-plus films that I wish they’d tightened things up a bit in the long lead-up to the action. That ending, though … WHERE EAGLES DARE presents one of the finest executed action sequences in cinematic history. For an hour or more the film offers thrilling action and Burton’s reserved performance as Smith pays off when he fingers Colonel Wyatt Turner (Patrick Wymark) as the Nazi’s top man in England during the plane ride out of Bavaria. Smith allows Turner to save face by jumping out of the plane without a parachute, which leads to one of the few genuine pieces of humor in the movie as Schaffer deadpans to Smith, “Do me a favour, will ya? The next time you have one of these things, keep it an all-British operation.”

Smith replies with a brief, simple, “I’ll try, Lieutenant.”

THE DEAD POOL: You Ain’t Gonna Be On “News at Eleven”

The Dead Pool (1988) – Directed by Buddy Van Horn – Starring Clint Eastwood, Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson, Evan C. Kim, David Hunt, and Jim Carrey.

There is nothing wrong with THE DEAD POOL, but there isn’t a lot here to get excited about, either.

THE DEAD POOL does have a special place in my cinematic heart, however, as it’s the first Dirty Harry movie I ever watched. When I was a kid and came across the movie on HBO or TNT or wherever, it was my first experience with Callahan and I dug this film about an older, grumpy cop who hated the press and hated the suspects, and could both blow someone away with his gun and outhink the mobster who put a hit out on him.

Watching it now and seeing it in the context of the other Dirty Harry films, THE DEAD POOL comes across as a perfectly harmless film that I can watch or not watch. It’s not the kind of movie that excites any kind of real reaction in me, except for a few points.

First, I love the idea that Callahan has started to gain a bit of fame in San Francisco. It’s only natural that a guy involved in this many cases has caught the attention of the local media, so it makes narrative sense that after yet another famous case (Callahan’s testimony has helped to put away a mob boss) the media wants to talk to him and the now PR-savvy San Francisco Police Department wants him to be more press friendly. It’s a far more interesting way to make Callahan feel isolated than to introduce more senior officers to yell at him.

Second, Eastwood was 58 when THE DEAD POOL was made and he’s obviously a bit slower than he used to be, but he does a pretty good job making Callahan look tired of the job and not because of age. There are multiple times in this movie when I can see and hear Danny Glover shaking his head and grumbling, “I’m getting too old for this sh*t.” Callahan won’t say it, but he will threaten to retire when his superiors push the PR angle at him too hard.

Third, there’s the remote control car chase. It’s one of those sequences that most people will either love or hate. When I was a kid, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Now, it feels a bit out of place in a Dirty Harry movie, but then, Callahan being out of place in an ever-changing world has long been part of the franchise, so even though I don’t really like it, I see the logic behind it, which in turn makes me like it, again.

Sometimes, I over-think things.

THE DEAD POOL has gained some traction over the years for the inclusion of two of its actors: Liam Neeson and Jim (credited as James) Carrey. Carrey’s role is to be the first murder victim. He lip-syncs (poorly) to Guns N Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle,” argues with Neeson, and then ODs on drugs when our murder jams it down his throat. It’s not really fair to Carrey to praise or lambaste his performance since it’s so small. As for Neeson, he plays the horror director Peter Swan, the prime suspect of the murders thanks to his involvement in the Dead Pool contest.

What is the Dead Pool? It’s one of those games that’s both horrible and awesome to play – if you’re 15. It’s like fantasy baseball, except instead of figuring out who’s going to hit the most doubles, you select a team of celebrities who are going to die. When someone on your list dies, you get a point.

There’s a muted relationship angle here with Callahan and Samantha Walker (Patricia Clarkson), a news reporter who he clashes heads with, but also takes to dinner. It’s not a very strong part of the film, but it’s not horrible, either. It’s just sort of there, much like the murder investigation is just sort of there. THE DEAD POOL really just exists so we can see Callahan one more time. For that, I’m thankful, but while I’ll watch it, I’m not going out of my way to do so.

SUDDEN IMPACT: Callahan is the One Constant in an Ever-Changing Universe

Sudden Impact (1983) – Directed by Clint Eastwood – Starring Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, Albert Popwell, and Bradford Dillman.

There are films that are representative of the times they were made, films that represent a bygone era, and then there are films like SUDDEN IMPACT, in which you can feel the tug of time pulling at the cinematic edges of a film.

It’s been seven years since Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) graced the big screen in the disappointing THE ENFORCER, the longest gap between any two Dirty Harry movies, and Clint Eastwood and the production team spent the time wisely. SUDDEN IMPACT is not as good as the first two films in the franchise, but it is a definite improvement over THE ENFORCER. This is, undoubtedly, a Dirty Harry film. The moral quandary is back after taking a film off and Harry is at his crusty best, an attitude best summed up by one of his superior officers, as he mocks Harry for not adjusting to the times: “Callahan is the one constant in an ever-changing universe.”

What SUDDEN IMPACT does beautifully is to show us that changing world. Sure, we get a classic Dirty Harry scene in a diner where Callahan takes out four thugs in a hail of bullets that, once again, avoids all the innocents, but we get bad guy after bad guy taking a run at Callahan. There’s a general theme of increased lawlessness here, and Director Eastwood lets the narrative slide hard into conventions of the Western. When local Police Chief Lester Jennings (Pat Hingle) warns Callahan that this isn’t his jurisdiction, it serves as the opening of the Western gate for Harry to walk through.

It’s fitting because that’s where Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke), the film’s anti-hero has spent the entire film. Years ago, Jennifer and her sister were gang-raped by a group of local thugs in San Paulo, California and now she’s getting her revenge, killing the men and woman who assaulted her one by one. In a Western like Hannie Caulder, this is perfectly acceptable way to handle one’s revenge. In the changing modern world, however, and specifically in a cop film, killing people in this manner is going to land you on the other side of the ledger. By having the top cop in San Paulo throw up a roadblock (his son was one of the rapists), the entire legal system is invalidated and Dirty Harry, Jennifer Spencer, and the rapists can play out their Western drama under dark California skies.

We see the tug of time in ways like this throughout the film. With Eastwood in the director’s chair for the first time in the franchise, there appears to be a tug between his desire to return to the Old West and modern expectations for what the 1980s want out of their action heroes. And make no mistake, this is Eastwood as an action hero. He’s older and less musclebound, obviously, than the other stars of this era (born in 1930, Eastwood was 53 when IMPACT was released), but this film makes concessions to the audience’s desire for one liners and violence. The Dirty Harry franchise has always liked guns, but Callahan gets a bigger gun this time out and is much more prone to one-liners. SUDDEN IMPACT gets its money line when Callahan grumbles, “Go ahead, make my day” for the first time early in the film, but there are other instances when it feels like the film is actively trying to go the one-liner route instead of just telling its story.

The film’s climactic sequence even plays out like a horror movie. The main baddie has captured Jennifer and his two henchman are at his side when they notice a man and his gun in silhouette standing down the walkway from them. These three thugs thought they had killed Callahan earlier in the night after they jumped him, beat the crap out of him, and then dumped his body in the ocean, so Harry’s return is, for them, a return from the dead. Much like Freddy Krueger would stand with his clawed hand down and at his side, Callahan holds his new, bigger gun in the same manner.

After the final rapist has been taken care of (excepting the catatonic rapist that is also Jennings’ son), Jennifer asks Callahan, “What now?” She clearly thinks he’s going to turn her in, but since this is a Western, Callahan comes up with another solution. Jennifer used the same gun in all of her killings, a gun that the main baddie took from her. When his dead body is recovered, that .38 caliber is found on his body and Callahan tells the local cop that ballistics should prove this was the gun used in all of the killings, thus framing this rapist for Jennifer’s crimes.

SUDDEN IMPACT is a very good film and almost returns the franchise to the high level of DIRTY HARRY and MAGNUM FORCE. It would have been nice for Callahan to discover Jennifer’s role in the killings before he slept with her (which is just before the film’s final act gets moving) to add to the moral and philosophical dilemma, but this tired Callahan feels right in this story.