Eagles Over London (1969)

In World war 2, a German undercover unit infiltrates British lines during the evacuation of Dunkirk, 1939. The film revolves around their successes and failures in disrupting R.A.F. operations during the Battle of Britain.

Director:

Enzo G. Castellari

Writers:

Tito Carpi (story), Vincenzo Mannino (story) (as Vincenzo Flamini)

Stars:

Frederick Stafford, Van Johnson, Francisco Rabal

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview:
Frederick Stafford	...	Captain Paul Stevens
Van Johnson	...	Air Marshal George Taylor
Francisco Rabal	...	Martin Donovan
Ida Galli	...	Meg (as Evelyn Stewart)
Luigi Pistilli	...	Maj. Krueger
Renzo Palmer	...	Sgt. Donald Mulligan
Luis Dávila	...	Jacques
Christian Hay	...	Gaston
Jacques Berthier	...	Colonel Smith
Teresa Gimpera	...	Sheila
George Rigaud	...	British general
Eduardo Fajardo	...	German officer
Ugo Adinolfi
Umberto Di Grazia
Ricardo Valle

Storyline

During the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, a team of German saboteurs assume the identities of dead British soldiers and are transported to England. Their first objective is to cripple British air defences by destroying radar stations. Though the identities and whereabouts of the saboteurs are unknown, a team of British soldiers is set up to track them down and abort their mission. While the Battle of Britain rages overhead, the final confrontation takes place as the German team are about to blow up the RAF Fighter Command control centre.

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Plot Keywords:

saboteur | evacuation | british soldier | britain | battle of britain | 

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Taglines:

A true story written in flame and fury !

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Italy France Spain

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

January 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Battle Command

Filming Locations:

Holland Park, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fida Cinematografica, Atlántida Films, Les Productions Jacques Roitfeld

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When getting the directing job, Enzo and a writing partner took a week to rewrite the overlong script to make it more action orientated and less of a "soap opera."

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Goofs

When the conspirators are on the terrace of the pub, the Telecom Tower can clearly be seen in the distance to the left of Tower Bridge. Construction on the tower didn't begin until 1961.

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Connections

Featured in From Hell to Victory (1979)

User Reviews

An uneven film but on balance, the good far outweighs the bad.

This is an odd case of casting, as the very American actor, Van Johnson, plays a British officer! However, despite this, the film looks very good for an Italian-made WWII film--sort of like a 'spaghetti' war film. For example, the Dunkirk scene was quite nice and had a pretty expansive look--with a relatively large cast and lots of ships. And SOME of the airplanes were done well (such as the fake He-111 cockpits--VERY nice). Unfortunately, the rest of the planes in the film are an odd lot--probably because the original models weren't available to the Italian film company. The German fighters were often American T-6s or even British Spitfires and the Spitfires were sometimes some odd plane (I assume Italian) that looks a bit like it but whose cockpit and undercarriage look more like that of the German Bf-109. To make it even more confusing, the exact same plane was often used interchangeably by BOTH sides in the film. And, at one point a British fighter plane becomes a Lysander observation plane. Clearly the film's attention to these sort of details was pretty poor...at best. And, late in the film the planes are CLEARLY cheap models. It's best to just close your eyes or so get a snack during these scenes because even if you don't care about these details, it still will confuse you.

The plot itself is rather clever. At Dunkirk, a group of Germans who speak English well are chosen to assume the identities of dead British soldiers. Then, when the British army is rescued, these agents can then infiltrate the country and eventually attack the Brit's most important secret weapon--their radar.

The bulk of the film is executed reasonably well (not always great--but not bad) and it's obvious they spend some money on the film. However, there were a few problems. The punching sounds in the fight scenes sounded EXACTLY like the punching sounds from a kung fu film! There also was a scene involving the killing of a German female agent and it was silly and WAY overdone--and completely unnecessary. All together, the film was very uneven but the good still far outweighed the bad. I would really love to see this film re-done--with a tighter script and more consistent special effects.