The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

A German plot to kidnap Winston Churchill unfolds at the height of World War II.

Director:

John Sturges

Writers:

Tom Mankiewicz (screenplay), Jack Higgins (novel)

Stars:

Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Caine	...	Colonel Steiner
Donald Sutherland	...	Liam Devlin
Robert Duvall	...	Colonel Radl
Jenny Agutter	...	Molly
Donald Pleasence	...	Himmler
Anthony Quayle	...	Admiral Canaris
Jean Marsh	...	Joanna Grey
Sven-Bertil Taube	...	Captain von Neustadt
John Standing	...	Father Verecker
Judy Geeson	...	Pamela
Treat Williams	...	Captain Clark
Larry Hagman	...	Colonel Pitts
Alexei Jawdokimov	...	Corporal Kuniski
Richard Wren
Michael Byrne	...	Karl

Storyline

Oberst Steiner, a German parachute unit commander, is sent to England on a covert mission to kidnap Prime Minister Winston Churchill and bring him to Berlin. The seemingly impossible assignment becomes more and more feasible as the mission grows nearer with Steiner and his men arriving in England to a very real possibility of success.

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Plot Keywords:

england | winston churchill | parachute | rescue | colonel | 

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Taglines:

The best seller is now a major motion picture.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Thriller | War

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English German Polish

Release Date:

24 February 1977 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

L'aigle s'est envolé

Filming Locations:

Berkshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Associated General Films, ITC Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min 125 min (TV) 145 min (extended) 131 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono (35 mm prints) 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) 4-Track Stereo (some 35 mm prints) (London premiere print)

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Rumours of this film being in preparation began circulating after Sven-Bertil Taube was seen in Stockholm shopping for books on German paratroopers; the likely reason was soon deduced.

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Goofs

Shadow of the boom mic visible in the top-right-hand corner of the screen while Devlin directs Steiner to the back of the church to show him the escape route he has found.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: [WWII News Story] September 12, 1943, German paratroopers snatched Mussolini from his mountaintop prison in Italy.

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Connections

Featured in Al Murray's Great British War Movies (2014)

User Reviews

Generally gets the thumbs-up, but has a couple of slightly disappointing features.

Based on a best-selling tall story by Jack Higgins, and featuring an all-star cast that must've cost half the budget just to get to sign up for the project, The Eagle Has Landed is an enjoyable but slightly overlong wartime actioner.

German soldier Max Radl (Robert Duvall) comes up with an audacious plot to deliver a devastating blow to the Allied forces by kidnapping Winston Churchill from a Norfolk village. A team of deadly German spies, led by Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine), are smuggled into England to carry out this sinister scheme. Aided by an Irish mercenary (Donald Sutherland), the German forces rapidly and ruthlessly close in on their target. Only an inexperienced American garrison, posted in a quiet corner of Norfolk, can stand in the way of a devastating German victory.

The Eagle Has Landed is one of the few films where the all-star cast doesn't have a detrimental effect. In films like A Bridge Too Far and The Longest Day, the presence of so many stars actually results in a game of "star-spotting", and this diverts the audience's attention away from important plot developments. In The Eagle Has Landed, each actor brings depth and charisma to their strongly written roles (especially Sutherland as the devious Irish rogue, and Duvall as an eye-patch wearing Nazi). This film's faults lie elsewhere. The opening hour and a quarter goes on rather too much and ought to have been trimmed by at least fifteen minutes. Also, the plot rides its luck with increasingly less likely, less plausible developments (especially the unpersuasive "twist" ending). For these reasons, The Eagle Has Landed isn't quite the excellent film you might be hoping for. What it is, however, is an enjoyable, well-acted and very watchable slice of escapism.