Introduction
A German plot to kidnap Sir Winston Churchill unfolds at the height of World War II.
Outline
Admiral Canaris, head of German military intelligence, is ordered by Adolf Hitler to make a feasibility study into capturing the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Although Canaris considers it a meaningless exercise that will soon be forgotten by the Führer, he knows this will not be the case with Heinrich Himmler. He therefore orders one of his staff officers, Oberst Radl, to begin a study to avoid being possibly discredited.
After Radl receives intelligence from an Abwehr sleeper agent in England saying Churchill will stay in a Norfolk village seven miles from the coast after visiting a local airfield, he begins to see potential in the operation he code-names ‘Eagle’. First he recruits an agent, an IRA man named Liam Devlin, who lectures at a Berlin university. Second he selects Kurt Steiner, a highly decorated and experienced Fallschirmjäger officer, to lead the mission. However, while the Luftwaffe parachute troops are returning from the Eastern Front, Steiner unsuccessfully attempts to save the life of a Jewish girl who is trying to escape from the SS in occupied Poland. He and his loyal men are all court-martialled and sent to a penal unit on German-occupied Alderney where their mission is to conduct near-suicidal human-torpedo attacks against Allied shipping in the English Channel.
Radl is summoned to a private meeting with Himmler without Canaris’ knowledge. The Reichsführer-SS reveals he knows all about the operation and gives Radl a letter apparently signed by Hitler to start the operations. Radl flies to Alderney where he recruits Steiner and his surviving men. The operation involves the German commandos dressing up as Polish paratroopers to infiltrate the village. They are then to capture Churchill with the help of Devlin before making their escape by E-boat. However, once the operation starts, Himmler retrieves the letter (signed by Hitler) he gave to Radl and destroys it.
On arrival in the English village, the disguised German paratroopers take up positions under the guise of conducting military exercises. However, the ruse ends after a soldier dies rescuing a child from the village mill race. Villagers see he is wearing his German uniform underneath his Polish one (Steiner did not want them executed as spies). When everyone is rounded up and put in the village church, the vicar’s sister escapes and alerts a unit of United States Army Rangers.
Colonel Pitts, the Rangers’ inexperienced and rash commander, launches a poorly-planned assault on the church that results in heavy American casualties. Pitts is later killed by the village’s Abwehr agent. It’s left to Pitts’ deputy commander to reorganise and launch a second, successful attack. To delay the Americans, Steiner’s men sacrifice themselves to give Devlin, Steiner and his wounded second-in-command time to escape through a hidden passage. A local girl, who has fallen for the charming Devlin, helps in the escape. At the waiting E-Boat, Steiner puts his wounded second-in-command on board but says he is staying behind to kill Churchill.
On Alderney, after Radl receives news that the operation has failed, he orders his assistant to immediately return to Berlin in order to seek the protection of Canaris because he now realises Himmler never had Hitler’s permission for the mission. Subsequently Radl is arrested and summarily executed by firing squad under the pretext that he “exceeded his orders to the point of treason”.
Back in England, Steiner succeeds in killing Churchill moments before being shot dead. It is then revealed the victim was actually a double, as the real Churchill was on his way to the Tehran Conference. The E-boat is sunk off the British coast. Meanwhile Devlin, evading capture, leaves a love letter for the local girl before slipping away.
Trivia & Goofs
- Sir Michael Caine was originally offered the role of Devlin, but did not want to play an I.R.A. member, and requested to play Steiner instead.
- A funny thing about having a small stunt team: One of the German soldiers shoots and kills the driver of an American Jeep, so it crashes into the pond. Both the German and the driver of the Jeep were played by the same stuntman (Jim Dowdall). He kills himself, so to speak.
- All the German paratroopers (both officers and men) are seen wearing their medals on their field uniforms. This is something unique to the German Armed Forces of World War II, as they wore their medals, even on the battlefield, as compared to Allied forces, who generally did not.
- Treat Williams spent a week with the 1st Ranger Battalion, 75th Rangers during an exercise in Georgia to prepare for his role.
- Uses some of the same plot ideas as the 1942 UK propaganda film Went the Day Well?
Production & Filming Details
- Director: John Sturges.
- Producers: David Niven Jr and Jack Wiener.
- Writer: TOm Mankiewicz (screenplay).
- Music: Lalo Schifrin.
- Cinematography: Anthony B. Richmond.
- Editor: Anne V. Coates.
- Production: ITC Entertainment.
- Distributor: CIC (UK) and Columbia Pictures (US).
- Release Date: 25 December 1976 (Finland & Sweden), 31 March 1977 (UK), 02 April 1977 (US).
- Running time: 135 minutes (Europe), 123 minutes (US), 151 (restored, extended version).
- Country: UK.
- Language: English.
YouTube Link
Military Gogglebox 
Leave a comment