Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 British action movie directed by Brian G. Hutton and starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, and Mary Ure set during World War II. It follows a paratrooper team from the Secret Intelligence Service raiding a castle.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the film, which was shot in Panavision and on location in Austria and Bavaria. The screenplay, Alistair MacLean’s debut, was written concurrently with the novel of the same name. Both turned out to be commercial successes.
The picture, which featured some of the best filmmakers of the day, is now regarded as a classic. Hollywood stuntman Yakima Canutt shot most of the action scenes as second unit director; British stuntman Alf Joint doubled for Burton in sequences like the fight on top of the cable car; award-winning conductor and composer Ron Goodwin wrote the film score, and future Oscar nominee Arthur Ibbetson worked on the cinematography.
Due to the quantity of screen time in which stand-ins doubled for the cast during action sequences, Eastwood and Burton reportedly called the film ‘Where Doubles Dare.’ Filming in Austria began on January 2, 1968, and ended in July of the same year. Eastwood was paid $800,000 a year, while Burton was paid $1,200,000. One of the first sound films to use the front projection effect was this one. The performers were able to film scenes on top of the cable car thanks to this technology.
Ron Goodwin composed the music for the film. Film Score Monthly’s Silver Age Classics series, in collaboration with Turner Entertainment, released a soundtrack on Compact Disc in 2005. The film music was on the first disc and the film music for Operation Crossbow and source music for Where Eagles Dare was on the second. The edition size was set at 3,000 copies.
