This is to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Where Eagles Dare. The film was created at the request of Richard Burton, who wanted to lead in an action film as opposed to his usual classical acting roles, so the script was written by successful novelist Alistair MacLean, who then went on to write the book. The film was immensely popular and has continued to be so, being now recognised as a cult classic of its genre, even Steven Spielberg regarding it as his favourite war film. It also boasted an all-star cast, with apart from Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Ingrid Pitt, Patrick Wymark, Michael Hordern, Donald Houston, Peter Barkworth, Robert Beatty, Anton Diffring and Derren Nesbitt. Brian G Hutton directed and Ron Goodwin wrote the music score. The plot focuses on a secret Allied World War Two raid on a castle where the Germans are holding a captured General who holds the secrets of the D-Day landings, but then it becomes more complicated. The title comes from Shakespeare’s Richard III – The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. Burton and MacLean are both buried in the same Swiss cemetery of Celigny. The castle, Schloss Hohenwerfen (Adler in the film) is located in Werfen, Austria and is now open to the public and hosts a falconry. The guesthouse in Werfen is called Zum Wilden Hirsch – The Wild Deer. The Junkers JU 52 was still in use at the time by the Swiss air force. The German uniforms worn by Burton & Eastwood show them as members of the 1st Mountain Division, with the edelweiss as their symbol. Ure’s character name of Maria Schenk is taken from the middle names of von Stauffenberg, who tried to assassinate Hitler. Pitt was an actual survivor of the Nazi holocaust and found filming with German uniforms difficult and also had escaped from East Germany over the Berlin wall. Filming took place in Austria, Germany and Switzerland January to May 1968 and was delayed due to extreme weather. Locations included Ebensee, Upper Austria (the cable car sequence), Lofer & Werfen & Steiermark & Saalfelden & Aigen im Enstall, Austria; Samedan Airport, Samedan, Canton Graubunden, Switzerland; Bavaria, Germany and was also filmed at MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. Burton took a share of the profits as part of his salary, which proved the biggest financial success of his career and in accord with his wishes, his widow applied ongoing profits to build a foundation for budding new playwrights in Wales.
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