FILM REVIEW OF ''SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN" (2012)

Hollywood has been cranking out cinematic adaptations of Snow White since the silent 1916 version.  In 1933, vampy cartoon heroine Betty Boop played the raven-haired princess in a 7-minute, surrealistic, black & white cartoon from Max Fleischer's Studios before Disney immortalized our fair maiden.  Recently, “Immortals” director Tarsem Singh helmed an adaptation of the Snow White fairy tale called “Mirror, Mirror” with Julia Roberts as the sinful stepmom.  Now, rookie British director Rupert Sanders and freshman scenarist Evan Daugherty, along with “The Blind Side” scribe John Lee Hancock and “Drive’s” Hossein Amini, have reimagined this melodrama as a much darker chick flick.  They’ve made it palatable not only for girls but also guys.  Imagine “Joan of Arc” crossed with “The Lord of the Rings,” and you’ve got a good idea about what to expect.  As the second take on the venerable Brothers Grimm fairy tale this year, “Snow White and the Huntsman” (*** out of ****) departs considerably the 1937 Walt Disney classic.  The protagonist here isn’t the clueless maiden who cooks and cleans for a clan of cuddly dwarves.  After escaping from her depraved stepmom and stumbling through a supernatural forest with all kinds of creepy critters, “Twilight’s” Kristen Stewart makes herself over into an armor-clad, sword-wielding Amazon who saddles up with an army of troops to ride back to her father’s castle and reclaim the kingdom.  Good adventure movies require stalwart heroines who don’t necessarily play second fiddle to the heroes.  A bearded Chris Hemsworth, whose character shares little in common with his Marvel Comics alter-ego “Thor,” brandishes both a hatchet as the eponymous “Huntsman,” but he doesn’t push our heroine around for long before she whistles a different tune.  Mind you, good adventures must also boast diabolical villains.  Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron steals the show as the malicious stepmother and qualifies as the most fascist femme that you’ll ever see.  She is a succubus rolled up into a sorceress.  Aside from her brother, this despicable villainess abhors men with a passion and loves literally to stick it to them—right in the gizzard with a sharp blade.

“Snow White and the Huntsman” follows the Brothers Grimm story when Queen Eleanor (newcomer Liberty Ross) pricks her finger on a blooming rose in the dead of winter and watches three drops of blood splatter in the snow.  Eleanor bears a child but then not long afterward dies.  Snow White’s grieving father King Magnus (Noah Huntley of “Your Highness”) rides into battle against a mysterious enemy that his army hacks into heaps of obsidian shards. Afterward, they discover a poor damsel-in-distress chained up like a slave in a wagon on the battlefield.  This unfortunate woman, Ravenna (Charlize Theron of “Monster”), seduces the monarch and later they marry.  During their wedding night, Ravenna stabs the unsuspecting king to death with a large knife thrust into his chest.  “Snow White and the Huntsman” skirts blood and gore as much as possible.  Nevertheless, the inventive Sanders shows some flair by having a pitcher of wine spill at least a quart of its dark red contents on the floor as a metaphor for the king’s loss of blood.  Ravenna wastes no time with the king’s daughter and locks young Snow White up in a tower.  No sooner has this incident transpired than Ravenna has her servants hang a mirror so she can admire her beauty.  Of course, this mirror is no ordinary mirror.  Everybody knows that the wicked stepmother-turned-queen has conversations with it.  The difference is that before the mirror replies to her, it behaves like the Robert Patrick terminator in “Terminator 2.”  The mirror oozes out onto the floor into a pool and then assumes the shape of a figure in a cloak.  This ingenious touch and the many others that ensue make “Snow White and the Huntsman” into an imaginative, above-average yarn with surprises galore.

After Snow White has grown up, Ravenna realizes that she has a problem.  She is beginning to age.  She sends her equally wicked brother her Finn (Sam Spruell of “Defiance”) off to fetch fresh flesh.  Finn brings her a young maiden, and Ravenna literally sucks the beauty of her mouth without touching her lips.  Indeed, Ravenna imitates the infamous Countess Báthory who slashed up young women and bathed in their blood.  Eventually, Ravenna learns that she must dine on Snow White’s heart and sends Finn off to get her.  A couple of birds fly up to Snow White’s window in the tower and she finds a loose nail.  Later, when Finn tries to dally with our heroine, she cuts him up and escapes from the castle.  The furious Ravenna enlists the aid of a drunken lout, the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth of “The Cabin in the Woods”) and he sets out to find Snow White.  Sensing something amiss, the Huntsman alters his allegiance and helps Snow White elude Finn and his henchmen.  About an hour into the action, our hero and heroine encounter eight dwarves who are thieves.

Future filmmakers will have to struggle to surpass what Sanders and his scribes have done both with the nefarious stepmother and the other elements.  If some of those dwarves that associate with Snow White look familiar, they are.  Sanders and company haven’t cast genuine dwarves.  Instead, they have pasted the heads of notable real-life actors, including Nick Frost of “Shaun of the Dead,” Ian McShane of HBO’s “Deadwood,” and Ray Winstone of “The Departed,” onto the bodies of these little people.  You’ve got to see these gritty little guys to believe them.  The scenery, the sets, the wardrobe, and the computer-generated-special effects are all fantastic.  Unfortunately, the chemistry between Kristen Stewart and her two suitors, Chris Hemsworth as the eponymous Huntsman and her childhood friend Sam Claflin, frizzle rather than sizzle.  Meanwhile, “Snow White and the Huntsman” has coined almost $100-million domestically and another $83-million overseas so Universal Studios is talking about a sequel.  Ironically, the studio was counting on “Battleship” to deliver, but it sank and “Snow White” has replaced it.  “Snow White and the Huntsman” qualifies as an unforgettable fairy tale with an edge. 

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE BANDIT OF SHERWOOD FOREST" (1946)

Two competent Hollywood helmers—George Sherman of “Big Jake” and Henry Levin of “The Man from Colorado”--teamed up for the above-average Columbia Pictures’ release “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest,” yet another saga about Robin Hood and his merry men in their battle with an autocratic tyrant. Scenarists Wilfred H. Petitt of “A Thousand and One Nights” and Melvin Levy of “The Robin Hood of El Dorado” have adapted author Paul A. Castleton’s 1941 novel “The Son of Robin Hood” in a rustic outing that tampers with British history, specifically the Magna Carta. The chief difference here is Robin Hood is a gray-haired, old fart, and Will Scarlet, Allan-A-Dale, Little John and Friar Tuck appear a mite long in the tooth, too. Robin Hood, Earl of Huntington, has fathered a son with an unseen Maid Marian and the son--Robert of Nottingham--must now eclipse his father’s legendary standing. Whether he is romancing a lady-in-disguise or crossing swords with the dastardly foe, a mustached Cornel Wilde appears to be in his element. He has no end of self-confidence, and his superb skills as an archer, an equestrian, and a swordsman testify to his expertise with these weapons of warfare. Mind you, Wilde is no Errol Flynn. He lacks Flynn’s flamboyance. Moreover, he doesn’t have any scenes here that stand out from the rest of the heroics. Nevertheless, Wilde was a champion fencer on the U.S. Olympic fencing team during the 1930s, and he appears to be performing his own fighting in the finale when he clashes with bad guy Henry Daniell. Unfortunately, the dames here are nothing delectable. Wilde’s romantic interest--former Warner Brothers starlet Anita Louise--is no pin-up girl, but she is an adequate actress. Jill Esmond makes only a minor impression as the Queen Mother.

“The Bandit of Sherwood Forest” (**1/2 out of ****) opens with scores of green clad archers on horseback of every description assembling in the wilderness to hear an elderly Robin Hood (Russell Hicks of “Tarzan’s New York Adventure”) address them about imminent danger of tyranny that has loomed up in the personage of the Lord Regent, William of Pembroke (Henry Daniell of “The Sea Hawk”), who intends to repeal the Magna Carta. “Comrades,” Robin states, “I’ve called you together again because the people of England face a grave crisis. Many years ago, as Robin Hood, I led you as an outlaw band here in Sherwood Forest. Together, we resisted the tyrant King John. When he died, we dispersed because we believed that tyranny had died with him. But tyranny did not die, it merely slept. And now it has awakened again. It’s the same tyranny, different only in name. And its name is William of Pembroke, the Lord Regent. Now, the Lord Regent calls the Council of Barons to a special meeting at Nottingham Castle. As the Earl of Huntington, I will attend, but on one knows what the outcome will be. But if he dares do anything to destroy the rights given you by the Magna Carta, we must take up our swords again.”

Later, after Pembroke has rescinded the Magna Carta, Robin Hood delivers a passionate speech at the Council of Barons in Nottingham Castle against Pembroke’s actions. "I've sat here hardly believing what my ears hear or my eyes see. Have you forgotten that English blood was shed to gain the Magna Carta? Does it means nothing to you that thousands of men have died for the people's right to rule themselves, to tax themselves, to live in liberty and in dignity? Now, the Regent asks you to take away those rights, and you are ready to agree. How can you face your families, your friends, and all those people you will betray for one ambitious man? Or if you will not think of others, you must think of yourselves. Today, the Regent calls on you for help because without you he is powerless. If you grant the Regent what he asks, he will need you no longer and he will turn on you and destroy you, just as surely as today he is destroying those whose only protection is the Magna Carta. If you refuse the Regent what he asks, you'll be your country's heroes. But I warn you if you give into him, you'll be history's blackest traitors."

The other barons capitulate to Pembroke, but Robin refuses to accommodate him. Consequently, Pembroke banishes the former outlaw and confiscates his wealth. Robin warns the Queen Mother to watch over her son because Pembroke may try to kill him. Naturally, the Queen Mother refuses to believe that Pembroke could behave so monstrously. Nevertheless, Robin pledges his service to the King and Queen and then returns to Sherwood Forest. Meantime, the wily Pembroke plots his strategy. First, he separates the Queen Mother from the young King of England (Maurice Tauzin of “The Piped Piper”) and orchestrates the demise of the monarch at the castle. Pembroke plans to have the young king plunge to his death from the tower where he has arranged for the youngster to lodge. Pembroke’s best-laid plans go awry when the Queen Mother (Jill Esmond of “The White Cliffs of Dover”) and Lady Catherine Maitland (Anita Louise of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) escape from the castle. Pembroke dispatches search parties, but they return to the castle at dusk. Instead, Robert (Cornel Wilde of “High Sierra”) stumbles upon them in the woods. Lady Catherine and the Queen Mother try to masquerade as scullery maids. Robert doesn’t believe a word of it, especially after he gets a glimpse of Lady Catherine’s silk stocking. Eventually, our hero discovers the identities of the two women, and Robin sends Allan-A-Dale (Leslie Denison of "Desperate Journey") in the guise of a minstrel to the castle to perform. Allan-A-Dale eavesdrops on Pembroke and the Sheriff of Nottingham as they discuss murder.

Before this can happen, our heroes masquerade as religious figures who request shelter for the night at Nottingham Castle. Lady Catherine poses as the ill Prioress of Buxton. Initially, Fitz-Herbert (perennial villain George Macready of “Gilda”) believes that the appearance of church people will derail their plans. On the contrary, argues Pembroke, the church people will serve as “witnesses to the fact that the king died by accident.” Later, Fitz-Herbert leaves with a regiment to scour the countryside for the heroes when he runs into the real religious figures. Although they manage to rescue the king, Robert, Lady Catherine and Allan-A-Dale are captured. Pembroke plans to hang them, including Lady Catherine. Robert demands his right as a nobleman in the law of trial by combat. Pembroke accedes to Robert’s wishes and then locks the protagonist up with no food or water for three days. The sly Pembroke also orders Fitz-Herbert to assemble the archers and have them ready to fill Robert with arrows if he gains the upper hand. Little do the villains know that Lady Catherine has been sharing her food and drink with Robert while he maintains a starved attitude. Meantime, Robin and his men take the king to safety and infiltrate the castle while Robert and Pembroke clash swords. The villainous Sheriff of Nottingham intervenes and stabs Robert in the back during the sword fight. Robin Hood skewers the Sheriff and Pembroke is desperate for help. Robert is reduced to fighting with his other hand. Pembroke races up a staircase to a higher level and hurls his sword at the protagonist like a spear. Robert hurls his and it lands in Pembroke’s chest and he plunges off the wall to his death in the courtyard below. “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest” concludes with the young King knighting Robert as the Earl of Sutherland and seeing to it that Lady Catherine becomes his bride.

Clocking in at a trim 86 minutes, “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest” is a brisk swashbuckler on a budget. Presumably, neither Sherman nor Levin collaborated on this epic. The question is who replaced whom? Interestingly, when the arrow sinks into the screen credit for the two directors, it lands solidly on George Sherman’s name. Sherman may have been the alpha director. Occasionally, one or both of these helmers uses the shadows of the combatants on the walls as another way to depict the scene. Undoubtedly, Sherman and Levin helmed separate scenes, perhaps like director Michael Curtiz did after he replaced William Keighley on “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” Incidentally, lenser Tony Gaudio photographed not only the Flynn classic, but also he was one of three photographers on the Wilde version. Lensers George Meehan of “The Black Parachute” and William E. Snyder of “Creature from the Black Lagoon” also received credit as directors of photography on “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest.” Some of the casting choices are quite novel: western tough guy Ray Teal plays Little John and Edgar Buchanan portrays Friar Tuck. The scene where Buchanan’s Friar Tuck tangles with Robert has got to be the only time that Buchanan worked up a sweat on screen. Typically, Buchanan specialized in slippery, conniving, sedentary supporting characters, but here he displays incredible agility.

FILM REVIEW OF "NOSFERATU, A SYMPHONY OF TERROR (German-1922)

"Faust" director F.W. Murnau's silent 1922 classic horror film "Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror" (****out of ****) ranks as the earliest surviving vampire epic. As many as twenty movies about vampires, some of them short films, had been produced before the release of Murnau's landmark epic. Sadly, none of these earlier vampire movies have survived the ravages of time. Ostensibly, "Golem" scenarist Henrik Galeen and Murnau appropriated Bram Stoker's celebrated Gothic horror novel "Dracula," published in 1897, as the basis for their plot, but they neglected to obtain copyright clearance from Stoker's estate. Inevitably, Stoker's widow Florence sued Murnau and company, won the case in court, and demanded that the authorities confiscate and destroy every print and negative of "Nosferatu." Happily, despite its plagiaristic origins, "Nosferatu" survived the justice of this court order, and audiences can enjoy it today. Not only does "Nosferatu" qualify as the first adaptation of "Dracula," but it also is a touchstone picture in the vampire genre because its vampire, Court Orlok, was emaciated and hideously ugly. He looked nothing like the sartorially elegant princes of seduction that either Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee embodied. Max Schreck portrayed Court Orlok as a loathsome vampire. He sports needle type fangs in the front of his mouth, and he looks like a Nazi concentration camp inmate.  Mind you, in some prints of "Nosferatu," Court Orlok is referred to as Count Dracula.

"Nosferatu" isn't a slavish adaptation of "Dracula." Apparently, Galeen and Murnau thought they might skirt the copyright issue if they altered the setting and changed some names. Clearly, the courts saw the issue otherwise when it ruled in favor of Florence Stoker. Basically, the plot remains intact with some geographical revisions, name changes, and the marginalizing of certain characters. "Orlok doesn't set sail for England, but heads to Bremen. The Count takes six coffins for his journey rather than some forty or more. One major departure from Stoker's novel, however, involves the character of Professor Van Helsing. Usually, Van Helsing acts as Dracula's arch enemy. Galeen and Murnau have reduced his role here to providing exposition about parasitic vampire organisms. Furthermore, the Murnau film takes place in Germany in 1838 whereas the Stoker novel occurred in the 1890s in Victorian England. Interestingly, unlike Dracula, Orlok does not spawn other vampires with his bite. He kills his victims, and the plague that follows in his wake serves as a metaphor for his evil. One precedent that "Nosferatu" established was that vampires were susceptible to sunlight. Meaning, the sun could obliterate them, something that wasn't the case with Stoker's literary protagonist who would stroll around during the day, though his powers were considerably attenuated.

Meanwhile, enough similarities existed to seal the filmmakers' fate. In Bremen, Germany, a creepy real estate agent Knock dispatches Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), to travel the Carpathian Mountains in distant Transylvania to discuss a business deal with the Count. In Stoker's novel, the Hutter character was named Jonathan. Anyway, Thomas is a rather adolescent, happy-go-luck fellow. He dismisses the warnings of the local folk as superstitious nonsense. He discovers a book entitled "Of Vampires, Terrible Phantoms, and and the Seven Deadly Sins left in his room and casts it aside in contempt. Presumably, the local equivalent of the Gideons stash this tome in every wayfarer's room as a sort of admonition. An eerie moment occurs when the coachmen take Hutter to a bridge and leave him afoot because they refuse to cross over into the province of phantoms. Later, a sinister coach drawn by horses decked out in dark hoods arrives with a creepy looking driver. Hutter climbs aboard for a whirlwind ride to the foreboding castle where a peculiar nobleman awaits his arrival. When he meets Hutter, The Count (Max Schreck) explains that his staff has gone to bed so he must attend to his needs.  Later, The Count explains without reason that he wants to pull up stakes in and relocate in Bremen right across the street from Hutter's house.

Camparatively, the two eponymous vampires forsake their homeland and embark on a voyage to another city. Before the Count departs, he attacks Hutter and leaves him for dead. Meanwhile, the Count loads his coffins by himself onto a wagon, climbs into the topmost coffin, levitates the lid into place on it, and sets the horses in motion for the harbor. This "Dracula" is very supernaturally endowed. Moreover, not only can Count Orlok control things nearby, but he can also control things at a great distance and has acquired power over Hutter's employer Knock. Eventually, Knock goes insane, and he is put in a strait-jacket and placed in a psychiatric asylum. In the Stoker novel, the character of Knock was named Renfield.  Like Knock, Renfield referred to the vampire as his "Master."


During the voyage, both Dracula and Orlok assume command of their vessels. For the record, Orlok embarks on his seagoing passage in August of 1838. In "Nosferatu," the outbreak of the plague is associated with the rats that infest Orlok's coffins. We learn that the dirt in the Orlok's coffins is plague dirt. Everybody dies on the respective ships in both yarns. The Count arrives in the ship at Wisborg with nobody left alive, but the ship is teeming with rats carrying a plague that wrecks havoc. German officials examine the ship, peruse the captain's log, and dread the worst: plague. Before long, panic grips the public about the plague, and people start to perish. The scenes where town officials mark front doors looks almost Biblical. Meanwhile, Hutter escapes from Orlok's castle and nearby peasants nurse him back to health. By now, Orlok has killed everybody on the ship. Orlok is entranced by Hutter's wife Ellen, and he takes a dilapidated building across the street from Hutter's house. While all of this is going on, Ellen has developed a psychic connection with Nosferatu. She will exert her power, but in the process she will die as she lures the undead villain to dally in her room until the morning rays of sunlight penetrate his body and he disappears.

The problem with watching public domain copies of "Nosferatu" is that these versions lack the tints that distinguish whether a scene occurs during either the day or after dark. Consequently, when Hutter meets Orlok at his foreboding castle, they appear to be drenched in bright sunlight. The blue tints on the Kino and Image DVD versions of "Nosferatu" make it clear that this scene takes place after dark. The absence of these tinted scenes is not confined strictly to "Nosferatu," but is also a problem with many public domain prints of silent films.

Although many critics try to pigeonhole Murnau in with the German Expressionist movement, he was not entirely enamored with expressionism. For instance, Expressionists prefer to shoot inside the orderly confines of a studio, whereas Murnau took his cameras onto location to shoot some scenic footage for the film. Incredibly, some of the settings, particularly the warehouse like building facing Hutter's home is still intact. Watch closely and you will see that Schreck never blinks. "Nosferatu" qualifies as one of the greatest horror films and Schreck's performance as the "Dracula" vampire is without parallel.  Indeed, for most people, watching "Nosferatu" poses many problems, not the least of which is that it is silent and looks tacky.  The ride through the woods on the haunted coach may look bad, but Murnau was striving to generate atmosphere.  There is an interesting moment when Murnau uses a hyena as the visual equivalent of a werewolf.  After you watch it several times and grow accustomed to its 'otherness,' "Nosferatu" is really great.  Some viewers might prefer the version that David Carradine introduces and has Type O Negative performing the soundtrack. Boo!

FILM REVIEW OF ''WHERE EAGLES DARE''

Clint Eastwood probably killed more of Adolf Hitler's German soldiers in director Brian G. Hutton's "Where Eagles Dare" (**** out of ****) than he did western outlaws as either Sergio Leone's Man with No Name in the "Dollars" trilogy or criminals as "Dirty Harry" in his five Warner Brothers crime movies. Bestselling British author Alistair MacLean penned the splendid screenplay that he later converted into a much tamer novel about a team of elite British M.I. 6 secret agents that parachute into Germany to rescue one of the top-ranking officers with a mother lode of knowledge about the June 6th Normandy landings. This MGM blockbuster that runs 158 minutes is probably the greatest action-adventure movie with a World War II setting ever produced. We're talking wall-to-wall gunfire with more surprises and complications than most movies ever attempt. Richard Burton and Eastwood as in top form and they get considerable help and guidance from busty Ingrid Pitt and Mary Ure as undercover female agents. "Where Eagles Dare" is also notable for its percussive orchestral soundtrack by composer Rod Goodwin, who carved a niche for himself in World War II movie soundtracks with "633 Squadron," "Force 10 from Navarone," "Operation Crossbow," and "The Battle of Britain." Some war movies take an anti-war stance, but neither Hutton nor MacLean had higher ideals on their collective minds when they made this war-as-an-adventure epic. If you are a World War II movie buff and you haven't seen "Where Eagles Dare," then you need to get yourself a copy of this memorable massacre.

Admiral Rolland (Michael Hordern of "Royal Flash") sends a group of British commandos on a suicidal mission to rescue U.S.A.F.F. General George Carnaby, (Robert Beatty of "2001: A Space Odyssey") one of the overall coordinators of planning for the second front who is imprisoned in an impregnable mountain fortress called the Schloss Adler, a.k.a 'the Castle of the Eagles.' As it turns out, the Schloss Adler is the headquarters for the German Secret Service in Southern Bavaria. Colonel Wyatt Turner, DSO MC (Patrick Wymark of "The League of Gentlemen") informs them that the castle is named appropriately "because only an eagle can get to it." Apparently, on a night flight to Crete, Carnaby's British Mosquito was shot down by a wandering Luftwaffe Messerschmitt and the Mosquito crashed in near the town of Werfen. Major Jonathan Smith (Richard Burton of "Raid on Rommel"), Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood of "Kelly's Heroes"), Captain James Christiansen (Donald Houston of "633 Squadron"), Sergeant Harrod (Brook Williams of "The Wild Geese"), Captain Philip Thomas (William Squire of "Alexander the Great"), Sergeant Jock MacPherson (Neil McCarthy of "Zulu"), and Edward Berkeley (Peter Barkworth of "Seven Keys") are to parachute into Germany, enter the castle and snatch Carnaby.

One of the sergeants suggests at the briefing that the R.A.F. fill a bomb-laden plane and crash it into the mountain fortress. Rolland reminds him that killing an American general might anger General Eisenhower. No sooner have our heroes bailed out than one of them, the radio operator, is found dead in the snow with a broken neck. The Gestapo raids a tavern in Werfen and arrests the rest and takes them separately for questioning. Smith and Schaffer are hauled away together, but they manage to escape after their car crashes. Smith and Schaffer then climb atop the cable car that ascends to the Schloss Adler. Simultaneous, one of their undercover agents, Mary Ure, is being escorted by a suave but sadistic Gestapo officer in the cable car to work in the castle.

Once our heroes have gotten into the castle, Smith interrupts a meeting between high ranking German officers and General Carnaby. Smith proves beyond a doubt to SS-Standartenführer Kramer (Anton Diffring of "Heroes of the Telemark") and Gen. Rosemeyer (Ferdy Mayne of "The Fearless Vampire Killers") that he is a double-agent working for the Nazis as well as the British with a night-time call to another high-ranking German general.

Eventually, when it comes time to break out of the castle, Smith relies on Schaffer who plasters the place with trip-wire explosives. Once the Nazis realize what is going on, all hell breaks loose. "Where Eagles Dare" the movie surpasses MacLean's own novel; he wrote the screenplay and he provides Richard Burton with some of the greatest lines that you'll ever hear in the World War II movie. Indeed, "Where Eagles Dare" is the best World War II thriller that Burton and Eastwood ever made, with Burton making more W.W. II thrillers than Eastwood. The rest of the cast is first-rate and composer Rod Goodwin of "633 Squadron" provides a memorable score that ramps up the action and intrigue. At 158 minutes, "Where Eagles Dare" never lets up on either action or excitement. The surprises that crop up in the narrative match the sizzling action sequences. Clearly, this is Brian Hutton's most memorable film, far better than the action comedy romp that he went on to direct "Kelly's Heroes" with Clint Eastwood after "Where Eagles Dare" wrapped. For the record, the propeller driven plane that appears during the opening credits is vintage Nazi plane. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the fighter planes that Smith and Schaffer blow up in the last major shoot out sequence.

Hollywood has yet to equal "Where Eagles Dare."