THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.

Released in 1976 The Eagle has Landed is an exceptional war movie, which is when you think about it a lot more than just a war film. Its plot at times moving into to the realms of a mystery. The story is about a supposed plan that the Nazi’s concocted to kidnap or even kill Winston Churchill in 1942. It takes place after a successful mission in which German paratroopers have rescued Mussolini, Hitler deciding that it would be the right time to attempt an abduction of the then British Prime minister.

Of course no such mission ever took place (at least we do not think so) with the film being based on the bestselling novel by author Jack Higgins. Michael Caine takes the part of a German officer Captain Kurt Steiner, who has been selected for the mission because he speaks perfect English, the German troops under his command are posing as Polish troops from the free Polish regiment who have been sent  to Norfolk on manoeuvres by the British. At the same time enter IRA leader Donald Sutherland who has been awaiting the German’s arrival and has been busy laying the groundwork for their arrival as he is already in England.

The story can at times be a complex one, but the standard of acting, a solid screenplay and strong direction from acclaimed filmmaker John Sturges, ensures that the film was an entertaining as well as an engrossing one. It’s a film that will keep on giving each time that you sit down to watch it, providing that is you do not think too much about the credibility of the scenario that is unfolding on screen. The film hooks the audience right from the start, as we see the plan for the kidnap take shape.

One interesting factor which I picked up on was the German soldiers in the film are portrayed as decent people, professional soldiers and are just doing as they are told, defending their country and fighting the enemy, even if they all are not in agreement with the Nazi regime and Hitler, just the same as the allies were doing at the time, just following orders.

The film which was the last movie to be helmed by John Sturges, is a fitting tribute to this fine filmmaker, who’s other credits included The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock, and The Great Escape as well as so many more that are now considered classics.  

The cast was also a strong one and included performances from well-respected actors such as Robert Duvall, Anthony Quayle, Jenny Agutter, Jean Marsh, Donald Pleasance, and a young Treat Williams. It was an interesting movie also because Sturges decided to cast well known British and American actors to portray Germans in the movie, and it worked. The only dubious performance being that of Larry Hagman, as Colonel Pitts, which is an appearance that I still cannot make up my mind about, was it intentionally comedic or was this how the actor played it, but there again maybe it is a good performance because this is probably how the British saw Americans back in the war years?

I think all the performances in the movie are in their own way outstanding, and totally believable, Caine I thought was marvellous, and Sutherland too acquitted himself admirably as Devlin, who oozed a quiet Irish charm, that was somewhat disconcerting. 

It is a movie that offers more than a standard film about men who are literally on a suicide mission for their war effort and their beliefs, the piece’s pulp origins, and its tranquil country setting give it a quality and a presence that ensures the audience focuses fully upon the finer details as well as the obvious moments within the movie,and adding intrigue into this already interesting smorgasbord of events is the realisation that the central Nazi protagonist (Caine) is not in agreement with his overlords in Berlin on the killing of Jews. The storyline never asks the audience to feel sympathy with Steiner, but it is saying that not all people should be put into the same category simply because of their origins or their nationality.

The score for the movie was by Argentinian born composer Lalo Schifrin, who provided the storyline with a tense and suitably apprehensive soundtrack, which was slightly outside of what many had become accustomed to with the composers work for cinema, it was totally removed from his scores for the TV show Mission Impossible and also the opposite to the music he had penned for the Bruce Lee martial arts thriller Enter The Dragon and bared no resemblance to his earlier works such as Murderers Row, but it was however a score that supported and elevated the action on screen and created moods and atmospherics that assisted the already taught plot.

The soundtrack included a Morricone-esque whistling piece, that accompanies Sutherlands character and there were also some martial sounding undertones included, and effective use of cymbalom, but I see no real connection to the storyline with this style of orchestration?

The composer employing dark and hurried strings which are accompanied and punctuated by piano, woods, and timpani, to purvey a sense of drama and tension. There are moments within the score that the music has to it the kind of style and sound that we more readily associate with composer Roy Budd, this I think could be due to the orchestra being used could be the National Philharmonic. In the same year the composer penned the score for The Voyage of the Damned, as well as writing music for three popular television series, these being Starsky and Hutch, Petrocelli and Sandford and Son.   

The Eagle Has Landed I have said before on occasion could have possibly been based upon the classic British war movie Went the Day Well (1942), or maybe Jack Higgins was inspired by the movie at some point? The storylines are similar, with German troops disguised as friendly soldiers, and the events being confined to a quiet rural setting. Both movies are tense and dramatic and have to them a sense of the mysterious as well as having a human side because of the way in which we see the communities react, plus there is an air of the unsure and apprehensive atmospherics in both productions. The feelings and unease of the village folk seeping into the central plot to create even more uncertainty. The plot for the movie is as follows. 

Admiral Canaris, (Anthony Quayle) head of the Abwehr, is ordered by Adolf Hitler to make a feasibility study into capturing the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Canaris considers it a meaningless exercise that will soon be forgotten by the Führer, but he knows this will not be the case with Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasance). Canaris therefore orders staff officer Oberst Radl (Robert Duvall) to begin the study, to avoid being discredited. Radl receives intelligence from an Abwehr sleeper agent in England, saying Churchill will stay in a Norfolk village near the coast. After which he begins to see potential in the operation, which he code-names ‘Eagle’. Firstly, Radl recruits an agent, an IRA man named Liam Devlin (Donald Pleasance) who lectures at a Berlin university. Secondly, he selects Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine) 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. Steiner and his loyal men are 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. Himmler reveals he knows all about the operation, and gives Radl a letter, apparently signed by Hitler, to commence the operation. Radl flies to Alderney, where he recruits Steiner and his surviving men.

Operation Eagle involves the German commandos dressing as Polish paratroopers to infiltrate the village. They are to capture Churchill, with the help of Devlin, before making their escape by a captured motor torpedo boat. Once the operation is underway, Himmler retrieves the letter (signed by Hitler) that he had given to Radl and destroys it.

On arrival in the English village, the German paratroopers take up positions under the guise of conducting friendly military exercises. However, the deception is discovered when one of Steiner’s men rescues a young girl from certain death beneath the village waterwheel. The soldier dies, and the wheel brings up his mangled corpse. The villagers see he is wearing a German uniform underneath his Polish one, the reason for this being that Steiner had not wanted them executed as spies. Steiner’s men round up the villagers and hold them captive in the village church, but the vicar’s sister escapes and alerts a unit of nearby 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 sleeper Abwehr agent. It’s left to Pitts’ deputy commander to launch a second attack, this time successful. To delay the Americans, Steiner’s men sacrifice themselves to give Devlin, Steiner and his wounded second-in-command time to escape the church through a hidden passage. A local girl, who has fallen for the charming Devlin, helps them escape. At the waiting S-boat, Steiner orders his wounded second-in-command on board, but says he is staying behind to kill Churchill. On Alderney, Radl receives news that the operation has failed. He realises that Himmler hadn’t ever had Hitler’s permission for the mission. Radl is arrested and summarily executed by an SS 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 himself. It is then revealed that the victim was a body double, and that the real Churchill was on his way to the Tehran Conference. The torpedo boat is aground, at dead low tide, awaiting Steiner’s return. Meanwhile Devlin, evading capture, leaves a love letter for the local girl, before slipping away. The Eagle has Landed is one of those movies that never looses its appeal, remaining interesting and entertaining to even contemporary audiences.  

THE LAST VALLEY.

THEY LEFT DEATH AND DESTRUCTION IN THEIR PATH UNTILL THEY CAME TO.

 

 

Released in 1971 and directed by James Clavell, THE LAST VALLEY is in many people’s opinion an underatted cinematic masterpiece. The movie boasted a quite impressive cast, with Michael Caine, Omar Sharif and Nigel Davenport being the main players or at least the more well-known actors participating. Although there were plenty of supporting roles taken by just as talented actors such as Brian Blessed, Florinda Bolkan, Arthur O’Connel, Madeleine Hind and Per Oscarsson. Director Clavell, also acted as producer for the movie as well as writing the screenplay which he based upon the writings of author J.B. Pick from his novel THE LAST VALLEY which was published in 1959. The stunning cinematography which was also a star of the film was the work of, Norman Warwick and John Wilcox and their technique at times added a mysterious and mystical air to the proceedings, and was the last time that the Todd-AO 70MM widescreen process was used until it was brought out of mothballs for the movie Baraka in 1991.

 

The movie also contained a wonderfully dramatic and romantic soundtrack composed and conducted by John Barry that added many, emotions, colours, textures and also a gothic style to the motion picture. The music is undoubtedly one of Barry’s finest works, scored for full orchestra and also choir, it is a powerful and at times a relentless and highly emotional musical journey, which matches the action and also purveys the desperation and the fierce tension that is evident between various characters and groups of people within the film. THE LAST VALLEY was set in Germany, during the thirty years war, which took place between 1618 and 1648 and was fought over differences in religious beliefs. It tells the story of a Mercenary the Captain played by Michael Caine and a teacher Vogel portrayed by Omar Sharif who are very different personalities but are both running away from the ravages of a war that they both believe nobody can win. They find themselves in an untouched valley which has miraculously escaped the ravages of the war and remains fertile and beautiful.

 

The Captain is the leader of a band of mercenaries who fight for whoever has the most money and pays the most and are a mix of Atheists, protestants and Catholics. Which in itself is a volatile combination. Vogel convinces the Captain to winter in the valley and hide away from the war and plague in the outside world. His words to the Captain are, “Live, while the army dies”. Advice which the Captain takes. The Captain forces the villagers and their head man Gruber (Nigel Davenport) to give in to is wishes and appoints Vogel judge to settle any disputes between the soldiers and the villagers.

 

Everything seems to be working until one of the soldiers attempts to rape a local woman and flees the valley with two other soldiers to find another band of mercenaries, their aim being to attack the village and pillage it. They are fought off as the villagers and soldiers join forces to defend the valley. Soon after this the Captain hears of a decisive battle that will be fought in the Rhineland and decides that he and his men must leave the valley, but he leaves behind a few of his men and also instructs Vogel he too must stay and if he leaves or tries to then the village will be raised to the ground and the inhabitants killed. While the Captain is away fighting a woman from the village Erica (Florinda Bolkan) who he has been living with is burnt at the stake for practising witchcraft by the fanatical Priest (Per Oscarsson). The Captain returns with a handful of men but is mortally wounded and dies in the forest outside of the valley, telling Vogel “You were right” as he takes his last breath. Vogel then leaves the valley and runs off into a fog shrouded forest, knowing that the Valley will be safe now.

The original soundtrack from THE LAST VALLEY was originally issued on the ABC label on long playing record, with a bootleg CD following this some years later on the German Tsunami label, there have also been re recordings by the City of Prague Philharmonic under the direction of Nic Raine a long time associate of John Barry, which I have to say was a very faithful rendition of Barry’s score but did I have to say falter slightly in the choral department.

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The soundtrack was then released by Intrada and more recently has had another re-release onto compact disc by the Spanish label Quartet. However, I still think that the bootleg release by Tickertape has the better-quality sound, and as it is a direct transfer of the tracks from the original LP recording for me stands head and shoulders above any other edition. On first hearing the score, many collectors remarked that Barry had basically repeated the style and the sound that he had fashioned for THE LION IN WINTER which was released three years prior to THE LAST VALLEY, but this is certainly not the case, the Latin choruses in THE LION IN WINTER are truly amazing and also hav to them an imposing and commanding aura, but, THE LAST VALLEY is in my opinion for what its worth more of a developed and accomplished score especially in the choral writing.

 

Yes, we are treated to rather urgent and forthright chorale flourishes within the films opening titles, which are sung in German and have to them a formidable and foreboding persona. The track opens quietly, with choir and strings combining in a low almost humming sound that is a background to seven note motif that is played on apprehensive sounding strings, choir then builds and swells to introduce the central theme from the score, which is underlined by martial sounding timpani that acts as punctuation to a choral and horn combination, for which the composer was to become well known for in later years. In some prints of the movie, the opening included a striking open sequence with two warriors crossing swords as the main title credits began to roll and Barry’s superb theme began to rise and take command. Then as the music builds it reaches the 1 min 44 sec point and alters into a more urgent and striking choral performance, that is bolstered by pounding percussion and warlike timpani.

Going back to THE LION IN WINTER and the comparisons that were made between it and THE LAST VALLEY, it would be true to say that both Lion and Valley were two scores that stood out amongst the many scores that Barry penned during this period of his career, (from late 1960’s through to the mid 1970;s) and maybe that is why so many draw the comparisons that they do when discussing them because they are so different from his Bond scores for example, but let us not forget, MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS and also ROBIN ND MARION, which were scores from historical dramas but even these were different stylistically.  It has always confounded me as to why Barry received awards for THE LION IN WINTER but not for THE LAST VALLEY, it was probably because THE LAST VALLEY had a mixed reaction at the box office, with most of this reaction being negative. However, both the movie and the score have stood test of time well and on viewing the movie recently I was still entertained by the performances of the cast and Barry’s beautiful and epic sounding music. I think it is true to say that THE LAST VALLEY score, consists of two central themes, we have the commanding and powerful composition which opens the proceedings of which certain elements are utilised within the more tense and dramatic parts of the storyline such as THE PLAGUE PIT, VILLAGERS FIGHT FOR THE SHRINE, MAIN TITLE THEMES part 2 (which is a more pronounced version of the opening track minus the German chants, these being replaced by grand horns and laced with glockenspiel that drives the piece forward) and NIGHT BATTLE AT RHINEFELDEN.

 

Plus, the composer arranges and orchestrates this core theme into various guises to suit scenes such as, THE VILLAGERS FIGHT FOR THE SHRINE and THE VILLAGE ATTACK, the latter I must admit sounding just a little 007 in places. Another stand out piece that utilises the same style is WITCHCRAFT/ERICA IS BURNED AT THE STAKE or WITCH BURNING as it was originally titled on the initial release of the soundtrack, Barry conjuring up a other-worldy sound and creating a dark and harrowing atmospheres.
Then we have the softer and less urgent interludes, where Barry produces lilting melodies performed by strings and also choir, the most striking and memorable of these being track 2 on the Intrada release and also on the original LP THE LAST VALLEY, it is the music that plays over the scene where Omar Sharif’s character Vogel first see’s the valley after witnessing the horrors of war and plague. It is text-book John Barry and rivals anything that he wrote in his long and illustrious career, the emotion and poignancy is enveloping and affecting, it basically says everything that Vogel does not because he is unable to speak because of the sight he is seeing. Heart-achingly exquisite and totally touching. Then there are the various songs such as delightful, THE CHILDRENS SONG, THE CHRISTMAS SONG and the hauntingly stunning EVENING SONG. These are performed in the main by accapella choir, and yes are not unlike certain vocal cues from THE LION IN WINTER. Even when we hear AN OFFERTORY CHANT it remains emotive but has to it dark undertones.

The style of heart-breaking theme performed by strings also manifests in THE DEATH OF THE CAPTAIN/END TITLE, the secondary theme underlining the final minutes of THE CAPTAIN (Michael Caine) after he returns to the valley fatally wounded in battle with a handful of his men to be reunited with Erica who unbeknown to him has been executed for being a witch. Vogel has not the heart to tell him Erica is dead and it is at this point that we see that Vogel is truly affected by seeing the Captain dying in front of him, and maybe also realises that he is a friend rather than a feared enemy. Barry’s music grows and swells into a crescendo of thematic glory with strings and female voices developing into a tumultuous and lush piece, which brings the movie to its end.

 

 

The intrada release I have to say I can do without, there is no extra music and the sound quality is much to be desired, which brings us back to the bootleg edition, on Tickertape this is long deleted, the Intrada release also focuses upon the actual movie within its liner notes, which is strange as it is a soundtrack release, one would have thought that the music would have been the central subject. Then we have the aforementioned Silva Screen re-recording, which of course has a bright and fresh sound, plus lots of extra cues, I do not normally say this but go for either the Tickertape if you just want what was on the original LP or for sound and extra cues it has to be the Silva Screen version. The quartet records release again lets us down in the sound quality department and again a straight repro of the original LP content. But either way, the music is masterful and it’s a soundtrack everyone should own.

ZULU-51 YEARS ON.

Dwarfing the mightiest, Towering over the Greatest, this was the tag line that I remember for ZULU, and it is 51 years ago that the movie opened to excited audiences in the UK in the January of 1964. Hailed as the greatest British war movie ever made, the film is a classic in every sense of that words meaning, it set Michael Caine on the road to stardom and further established Stanley Baker as the iconic British actor that we all now know and love of course Baker also co-produced the film. I wonder what Baker would have made of the success and also the longevity of the film if he were alive today. Although essentially flawed historically in the storyline department, ZULU still attracted the audiences and I am sure if it were to be re-released today in cinemas it would still pack em in. It was a great adventure movie I suppose the stuff that boys dreams are made of, brave soldiers defending what is thought to be a hopeless position against overwhelming odds but in the end triumphing and managing to hold out. 4,000 Zulu warriors made their way to the mission station at Rorkes Drift on the Buffalo river in Natal Colony South Africa, to basically wipe it out, they aimed to kill the British garrison that was there, a garrison of just over 150 men many of whom were sick.

It was to be the second victory of the Zulu army or so they thought, the first being the massacre of 1,500 British soldiers on the slopes of the mountain Isandlwana on that morning. Lord Chelmsford had made a fatal mistake and thinking that he was fighting an inferior trained force decided to split his column, leaving one half camped on the mountainside whilst he took the remaining force up country towards the royal kraal of Ulundi, this proved to be one of the biggest military blunders in the history of Great Britain. In fact the battle at Rorkes drift would not have taken place if it were not for the insubordination of the Zulu Kings half Brother, who decided after pursuing survivors from Isandlwana that it would be a good idea to take his impis of warriors over the river into natal and attack the British at the mission station, the Zulu King Cetshwayo had forbidden his army to invade Natal.

The film was a success no doubt of that but there were many historical blunders in the screenplay, some of which were basically an insult to the memory of both the British and the Zulus. Henry hook for example was a disciplined and model soldier and after the battle became a sergeant, but in the movie was depicted as a lazy good for nothing who had been taken into the army because he was a thief, he was also depicted as drunk, when in real life Hook was teetotal, the performance by James Booth although being an entertaining one for the purpose of the storyline, was totally inaccurate and at the premiere of the movie in London the real life daughter of Henry hook walked out of the cinema in disgust at the films depiction of her Father.

The colour sergeant Frank Bourne, portrayed by Nigel Green and a popular mainstay of the cast, was also incorrect, Green’s character came across as a seasoned veteran of numerous campaigns with years of experience, in reality Bourne was just 24 years of age in fact he was the youngest colour sergeant at the time in the British army, his subordinates often referring to him as “THE KID”. In the movie the character displayed a number of medals on his tunic, this too was fictitious as he would not have been allowed to do so. After the battle Bourne was offered a commission but because he lacked the money necessary to be a commissioned officer he refused it, but eleven years later he did accept the commission, Bourne was the last surviving member of the garrison at Rorkes Drift and became a full Colonel, before his death which was in 1945. The song MEN OF HARLECH that was used in the movie was also incorrect, in fact at the time of the battle the regiment although based in Brecon was not technically a Welsh regiment, it was the 24th but attached to the 2nd Warwickshire, regiment of foot. They did not become The South Wales Borderers until three years after the battle in 1881. The song did eventually become the regiments song, but at the time of the Zulu war their regimental song was THE WARWICKSHIRE LAD, and of course there was no battlefield singing contest between the British and the Zulus. William Allen who was a corporal and in the movie depicted as a model soldier had in fact been demoted from sergeant for drunkenness just prior to the battle. Corporal Christian Ferdinand Scheiss who was attached to the Natal native contingent was depicted like Colour sergeant Bourne as a seasoned Zulu fighter in the movie despatching a number of the attacking warriors even though he was himself injured, in fact Scheiss was just 22 at the time of the battle. So if the movie was to be re-made nowadays with all the PC that is around maybe it would be a very different tale that it would tell. One thing that remains unblemished and still as fresh and vibrant as the first time I heard it is John Barry’s magnificent score, which although short in its duration is probably the film score that set the composer on the road to becoming one of the worlds leading film music composers. Yes he had already achieved success with the James Bond movies DR NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, but with Zulu we saw another side to Barry, he took traditional Zulu stamps or dances and arranged them converting them into a score that was dramatic, exciting and in many ways as savage as the action that was taking place on screen. The composer very cleverly used his score sparingly, but each time the music was utilised it underlined and elevated the scenes superbly.

Zulu was my second soundtrack LP, it was released on the Ember record label and was on sale for the princely sum of 39 shillings and 6 pence which in today’s money would be just under two pounds I guess, with the A side being occupied by Barry’s epic score and the B side of the album being taken up by the composers take on some of the other Zulu stamps and dances which he had arranged and given an upbeat sound which was not dissimilar to some of the hits he had enjoyed with THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN it was an essential purchase. Although the movie was historically incorrect in places, it is still a classic film and one which has endured the test of time, an epic production the like of which I do not think we will see again.