Where Eagles Dare

Revolver66Revolver66 Melbourne, AustraliaPosts: 470MI6 Agent
Anyone on here a fan of this 60s action gem? Very Bondian, and has a definite OHMSS vibe. In fact I'd be willing to bet that Broccoli and co looked at this one before production on Majesty's started. Highly recommend if you haven't seen it, and I'd say that most Bond fans will dig this one :)) -{
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Comments

  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Agreed a great film ( watched it recently myself) although ..... Fleming wrote his story First, and
    OHMSS is an action packed adventure. So I wouldn't think the Producers needed too much help,
    Apart from finding the perfect location. ;)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff
    Love it, one of my all-time favourites. Story, cast, music...

    "Broadsword calling Danny Boy, Broadsword calling Danny Boy..."
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 5,991MI6 Agent
    One of the greatest action films of all time. Saw it in the cinema about four times as a 12-year old. Nail biting tension on first viewing, I was certain Clint was going to die. I still have the original movie poster.

    I love it that Burton calls Eastwood a second rate punk and that Clint would use that word in the Dirty Harry films.
    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Recently heard a short radio piece on how Richard Burton had his voice trained for years, starting
    As a Boy. To get that big delivery.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,672MI6 Agent
    It's a great movie, but I still think I prefer The Guns of Navarone.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 5,991MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    It's a great movie, but I still think I prefer The Guns of Navarone.

    Both written by Alistair MacLean
    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I love all those big 60s war movies, including The battle of the bulge, Kelly's Heroes etc.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,449MI6 Agent
    Brilliant film, as is Kellys heroes, I actually liked force10 to navarone too, and the one where they take an elephant over the hills? Forget it's name now. I hope we will get some if these films at Christmas along with the musketeer films with oliver reed etc.
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff
    Chriscoop wrote:
    the one where they take an elephant over the hills? Forget it's name now.

    "Hannibal Brooks" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Brooks
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,449MI6 Agent
    That's the one, Oliver reed and that funny little American chap
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff
    I remember reading once that Broccoli & Saltzman thought about casting Reed as Bond (probably for OHMSS) but decided they wouldn't be able to keep him sober long enough to shoot the film. Can't recall the source, and it may be apocryphal.
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,449MI6 Agent
    edited December 2016
    I recollect something similar, Olivers love of drink certainly limited his career, he would have made a decent bond I think.
    Screenshot_20161204_182136.png
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • Revolver66Revolver66 Melbourne, AustraliaPosts: 470MI6 Agent
    Would have been the master at ordering a martini -{
  • Revolver66Revolver66 Melbourne, AustraliaPosts: 470MI6 Agent
    Was Burton considered for Bond at one point? Or was it McClory that tried to get him to do a variation of Thunderball?
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff
    Yes to the first question. The offer that came closest to getting Burton to play Bond came from Charles K. Feldman when he had the rights to CR and was considering making a serious version.
    Re McClory asking Burton: McClory certainly mentioned Burton's name at some points in his many, many attempts to make/remake TB but he said an awful lot of things during those attempts. For some discussion of this have a look at http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/29701/kevin-mcclory/ and of course access the search function above for more.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff
    Ron Goodwin's excellent music from WED- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0ZTTeTr-YQ

    Some sources have claimed that OHMSS was to have climaxed with a cable car fight between Bond and Blofeld after Draco raids Piz Gloria but the idea was dropped when WED featured a very similar sequence, and was replaced with the bobsled sequence we have today. Since the bobsled sequence is in the novel, I'm not totally convinced by that.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 5,991MI6 Agent
    I remember reading that Lazenby floored Reed in a bar fight when Reed was being rude to him about an Aussie being Bond.
    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Revolver66Revolver66 Melbourne, AustraliaPosts: 470MI6 Agent
    If that story is true then that is amazing. :)) Lazenby what a lad -{ And yes Barbel the cable cars very much made me think of OHMSS, and obviously the snow
  • Charmed & DangerousCharmed & Dangerous Posts: 7,358MI6 Agent
    I've rewatched both films recently - both brilliant and among my favourites too.

    Somewhere Chez C&D, I have a fascinating cinema magazine with lengthy articles on the making of both films. I seem to recall both were problematic due to locations and stars. It was at this point that Burton would just disappear with Elizabeth Taylor for days, and the producers were tearing their hair out.

    Barbel, if I find it and scan it, is there a way to make it available so anyone who is interested can read it?
    "How was your lamb?" "Skewered. One sympathises."
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,218MI6 Agent
    WED is utter garbage, and quality garbage at that!

    I mean, come on! So much of it is crazy, though I hesitate to say it lest it destroys illusions. At the time it was reckoned to be a comedy, almost like Inglorious B***** would be really... just one thing is the Nazi helicopter, it didn't exist then.

    Burton saying he's too old for this s*** pretty much. He'd be saying that again in The Wild Geese a decade later! It's odd, I mean the guy was a sellout, look at some of the B-movie rubbish he did, yet he didn't do many of these auctioners, did he, and the two he did were great.

    Because, yes, I do enjoy WED, it's a looooooong film though! Great settings, but you know, Burton and Eastwood pretending to be Nazis, and passing it off. Dearie me. But for me, once you go with the ride, it's all fun. They never run out of bullets do they?

    The short-lived magazine Movie Collector did something on it 15 years ago, so I know a bit about it.

    It's the guilty pleasure OHMSS should have been but wasn't.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • sniperUKsniperUK UlsterPosts: 594MI6 Agent
    WED is utter garbage, and quality garbage at that!

    I mean, come on! So much of it is crazy, though I hesitate to say it lest it destroys illusions. At the time it was reckoned to be a comedy, almost like Inglorious B***** would be really... just one thing is the Nazi helicopter, it didn't exist then.

    .

    Really ? yes they used a Bell 47 in the movie but the Germans had helicopters in service in WW2

    The Fletner 282 Kolibri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_Fl_282

    the Focke Angelis A 223 Drache https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Achgelis_Fa_223

    Otto Skorzeny intended to use a FA223 on the San Grasso raid to rescue Mussolini but it went tech and a Fiesler Storch used instead.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,218MI6 Agent
    Blimey, see what you mean... I was reporting what I'd been told.

    I could say that the MASH or FRWL-style helicopter seen in the film is still 20 years or so ahead of those, but fair's fair, those are helicopters alright, and not autogyros.

    Alright, the bit where they manage to fly to Austria or wherever it is in a short time, and the radio signal... hmm, suddenly I'm unsure of my ground.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • sniperUKsniperUK UlsterPosts: 594MI6 Agent
    The "MASH" Bell 47 first flew in 1945 entered military service in 1946 and was approved for civy use in 1946 it was operational in Korea from 1949. First operational allied chopper was the Sikorsky R-4 that first flew in 1942 and entered service in late 1943.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    If they'd have had Bond there, they could have brought down a Helicopter with his
    Gun ;)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff

    Barbel, if I find it and scan it, is there a way to make it available so anyone who is interested can read it?

    If you save it as an image, it should be easy to add it to a post.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff
    Unfortunately I can't find a link, but Harry Enfield did a marvelous parody of WED on his "Norbert Smith" program and it's essential viewing for any WED lovers.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    There's also the well known quote from Clint Eastwood calling it " Where Doubles Dare" :)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff
    Has anyone read the book? It's naturally much more detailed than the movie, but the plot is even more intricate. Oddly, a good few of the characters have different names (though not Smith and Schaffer).
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I'm no expert but have read the book was written along side the movie script ?
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 35,980Chief of Staff
    Yup, by this point Maclean was thinking in movie terms (he was being offered big money). He wrote "Force 10 From Navarone" at around the same time- although it wasn't actually filmed till years later- and I've wondered if WED started as another adventure for Mallory and Miller (the Navarone guys) and was later changed to Smith and Schaffer.
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