Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 action adventure war film directed by Brian G. Hutton and starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure.

Set during World War II, it follows a Special Operations Executive team charged with saving a captured American General from the fictional Schloß Adler fortress, except the mission turns out not to be as it seems.

Hollywood stuntman Yakima Canutt was the second unit director and shot most of the action scenes; British stuntman Alf Joint doubled for Burton in many sequences, including 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.

Where Eagles Dare received mostly positive critical reaction, with praise for its action sequences, score and the performances of Burton and Eastwood, and has since been considered a classic.

[4][5] During World War II, MI6 officers Colonel Turner and Admiral Rolland assemble a commando team for a dangerous mission behind enemy lines: Major John Smith, Sergeants Harrod and MacPherson, Captains Lee Thomas, Ted Berkeley, and Olaf Christiansen, and U.S. Army Ranger Lieutenant Morris Schaffer.

Their task is to rescue American Brigadier General George Carnaby—a chief planner for the Western Front—captured by the Germans and held at Schloß Adler, an alpine mountaintop fortress in Bavaria, accessible only by cable car.

Smith and his team infiltrate the village at the base of Schloß Adler where he meets undercover agent Heidi Schmidt, who has arranged for Mary to work inside the castle.

Smith discloses to Mary that Carnaby's capture was staged by the British, and the General is actually an imposter named Cartwright Jones, a U.S. Army Corporal.

When German soldiers surround the team in a gasthaus, ostensibly searching for deserters, Smith deduces they have been betrayed and surrenders to avoid an unwinnable fight.

Afterwards, Smith reveals the truth: believing German spies have extensively infiltrated British intelligence, MI6 identified Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen as suspects, and launched the mission to prove this and obtain the identities of their accomplices and commander.

Reunited with Heidi on the ground, the team uses a bus to battle their way onto an airfield and escape aboard a Ju 52 transport, with Turner waiting onboard.

In the air, Smith reveals that Kramer identified Turner as Germany's top spy in Britain, confirming Rolland's suspicions.

The cast of When Eagles Dare also includes uncredited appearances by Philip Stone as cable car operator, Victor Beaumont as Lieutenant colonel Weissner, Guy Deghy as Major Wilhelm Wilner, Derek Newark as SS Officer, and Olga Lowe as Anne-Marie Kernitser.

Kastner and co-producer Jerry Gershwin announced in July 1966 that they had purchased five MacLean scripts, starting with Where Eagles Dare and When Eight Bells Toll.

[14] Director Hutton played to his actors' strengths, allowing for Burton's theatrical background to help the character of Smith and Eastwood's quiet demeanour to establish Schaffer.

[18] As part of his deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Clint Eastwood took delivery of a Norton P11 motorcycle, which he 'tested' at Brands Hatch racetrack,[19] accompanied by Ingrid Pitt, something that he had been forbidden from doing by Kastner for insurance purposes in case of injury or worse.

[20] Stuntman Alf Joint, who had played Capungo – the man whom 007 electrocuted in the bathtub in Goldfinger – doubled and was stand-in for Richard Burton, and performed the famous cable car jump sequence, during which he lost three teeth.

[25][26][27] Where Eagles Dare received a Royal premiere at the Empire, Leicester Square cinema on 22 January 1969 with Princess Alexandra in attendance.

[37] Likewise, Variety praised the film, describing it as 'Highly entertaining, thrilling and rarely lets down for a moment… more of a saga of cool, calculated courage, than any glorification of war.'.

A soundtrack was released on Compact Disc in 2005 by Film Score Monthly, of the Silver Age Classics series, in association with Turner Entertainment.

One scene during the escape from the castle where Smith saves a German guard from burning to death presaged the non-lethal thriller vein that MacLean would explore in his later career.

In the novel the characters are more clearly defined and slightly more humorous than their depictions in the film, which is fast-paced and has sombre performances from Burton and Eastwood at its centre.

In the book the group is flown into Germany on board an RAF Avro Lancaster, whereas in the film they are transported in a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 52.