I don't have cable but I do own a dvd copy. I need to buy another because it is possible I could wear this one out from frequent viewing.
It's a cult favorite, panned for inconsistencies by critics, but a remarkable film for when, where, and how it was made. Released in UK and US I believe in the winter of '68-69, at a sensitive point in the Cold War after the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia.
There are several YouTube videos that revisit the locale, as well as a couple of hilarious guest appearances with the last surviving cast member, Derren Nesbitt, who played Major Von Hapen (which sounds at a couple points like Von Hatten).
It is often said Richard Burton was drinking heavily, as much as 4 bottles of vodka daily, but I don't see how even an alcoholic could handle that. Mary Ure also had alcohol problems in her shortened life.
They could not make that film today. In the 60s the towns looked very similar to the 1940s, today they've been modernized. The stunts would be illegal today. The budget to remake it would be prohibitive. And why would they, they would never find such a cast.
Clint Eastwood's dialogue is reduced for various reasons. Not clear if he wasn't sympatico with Richard Burton. One story has him off to another European city with Ingrid Pitt on his motorcycle.
Several of the cast members, much like Hogan's Heroes, were touched by the Holocaust, and Ferdy Mayne and Anton Diffring who played the Nazis had fled Germany for Europe and Canada I think it was, pre-War. Ingrid Pitt lost family in the Holocaust.
The book is hard to find, it is a very good read with a different ending but the characterization is fabulous as it always is with Alistair MacLean, who was a WWII British Navy vet. MacLean was integral to the making of the film.
I wonder if the people who made films back then knew a lot about how it would appear. At one point Admiral Rolland is talking with Richard Burton over the wireless and refers to himself as "Father McCree", presumably to confuse the Nazis. The next moment he said he and Col Turner will remain at HQ until the mission is completed. WTF?
And Clint Eastwood must fire 5000 rounds. They almost never get hit by enemy fire, and they never run out of bullets or bombs.
Patrick Wymark (Colonel Turner) died in Australia about a year after this picture was made. His daughter is Jane Wymark, most known for Midsomer Murders.
Don't miss it, but get the full DVD version too. Whew!
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