Welcome back to my blog. Here’s my recommendation of a movie to check out today and hope you punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” OK, today I’ll recommend a World War II thriller called “The Eagle Has Landed” starring Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Jenny Agutter and Robert Duvall and it has an overall sterling cast, but a director who just mailed in his effort and it shows.
“The Eagle Has Landed” was director John Sturges’ final credit and his lack of attention to making a solid film is evident with how he wasted a wonderful cast’s talent and the minor players in the movie include Donald Pleasence, Anthony Quayle, Treat Williams and tee-vee star Larry Hagman. Sturges, who was an Oscar-nominated director (not for this one) just never managed to pull it all together.
“The Eagle Has Landed” is the story of a German mission in WWII in which paratroopers are dropped into England in an attempt to kidnap Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Leading the German effort is Caine, as a disgraced officer (he had the nerve to help a Jewish prisoner escape the clutches of the SS) who is especially suited to the role as commando leader.
Sutherland, who plays a member of the IRA temporarily on the German side, provides assistance as a fifth columnist who has infiltrated a rural British town ahead of the strike force of German paratroopers. Agutter becomes the love interest of Sutherland, while Hagman is the leader of a U.S. team of Rangers who gets involved in the latter stages of the film.
Of course, the climax in “The Eagle Has Landed” comes after a firefight between the U.S. troops and the German paratroopers and the film ends with all the story’s loose ends tied up, but not with everyone happy.
All-in-all, “The Eagle Has Landed” has an excellent premise and, as I’ve noted, a competent cast that appears ready to elevate each of their characters, but Sturges just didn’t appear to have much interest in the film other than to be cashing a paycheck.
So, I say punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” and watch “The Eagle Has Landed.” It is available on a limited number of subscription services and is available to rent via several streaming services. Don’t worry, you’ll thank me later if you watch “The Eagle Has Landed.”
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