Escape to Victory (1981)

“We scored a goal! Terry scored a goal!” Captain John Colby

For Escape to Victory we make a return to the war with Caine playing Captain John Colby an England international footballer. Now being held in a German prisoner of war camp a chance meeting with an ex-German player leads to them arranging a match between the POWs and a local army base. Before they know it events quickly spiral out of their control as the match is hijacked as a potential propaganda victory for the Nazis and an opportunity to organise an escape for the allies.

Sport and movies have traditionally never been especially happy bedfellows. Transporting the pure and natural drama of sport into a realistic and believable cinematic form has been a challenge too far for many a filmmaker. Sport throws up an enormous amount of incredible stories, but it does so in an entirely organic manner. When Leicester City won the Premier League it was a tale more remarkable than anything you are likely to see on screen. Yet had somebody produced a film in advance of it happening with that exact scenario it would have been written off as too far-fetched to have any genuine credibility. It’s one of the reasons why sporting documentary’s are often more successfully realised than narrative pieces. Escape to Victory evades this issue by simply being so much fun that you get swept up with everything and are happy to give the film a bit of a pass. While the comeback to level the game at 4-4 and the late penalty save that follows may seem a little convenient it simply wouldn’t really be possible to countenance anything other than a successful outcome for the allies. The film lays it on thick with its good versus bad narrative as the Nazi side take advantage of a thoroughly biased referee and though it lacks in subtlety it succeeds in creating a genuine underdog story.

Just as much of a challenge if you can create a plausible narrative is how you effectively realise sporting action on the screen. The two major issues are firstly how can you choreograph sport and still make it look natural (it isn’t a coincidence that so many of the better sporting movies are boxing based given how much easier it is to choreograph a fight than other sporting action) and secondly how do you find actors who look like they can play the sport, but are also still able to act? Escape to Victory goes in a surprising direction to try and tackle that second issue. The two lead parts go to Caine and Sylvester Stallone while the rest of the team are played by a selection of professional footballers. It’s a choice that simultaneously provides the best and worst of both worlds. Caine and Stallone are both excellent and bring an enormous amount of charisma to their roles, but convincing footballers they are not. Caine was 47 when the film was made and though not in terrible shape for a man of that age he is certainly a little thicker round the midriff than he used to be and particularly when compared to the professional athletes on show and indeed Stallone who was not long off the back of the first two Rocky movies. As a consequence you have Colby, an England international and captain of the side who never really does anything other than occasionally pick up the ball from his left-back position and make a little short pass before barking a few orders out. Stallone is a much more convincing athlete, but has the difficult task of making goalkeeping look realistic and I would slightly question Colby and the rest of his team’s assertion that Hatch is a natural keeper. The scene where they first stick him between the posts and fire shots at him conveniently ignores the fact that he only really saves the shots hit straight at him and the amount of time the net bulges with the shots that fly past him. Obviously more convincing as footballers are the rest of the team. It’s an incredible roster that includes Brazilian legend Pele, Tottenham and Argentina icon Ossie Ardiles, England World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore, Manchester City and England’s Mike Summerbee and a number of Bobby Robson’s successful Ipswich Town side. There’s no doubt that the inclusion of genuine footballing talent helps the movie with the training sequences in particular having a real authenticity about them. Of course what the film gains in footballing authenticity it does lose a little in acting ability. Director John Huston was famous for stating that once he had cast the roles correctly there was absolutely no need for him to offer any comment to the actors, but just to point the camera at them and let them do their thing. Whether he retained that attitude when directing the likes of John Wark and Russell Osman or not is an interesting question. Not that they really have too much acting work to do and the film is quite clever in the way it manages to move the narrative along without really demanding too much from them. What they are asked to do they generally manage pretty competently with Moore in particular actually coming across very well in his scenes. Even Pele who plays a Trinidadian doesn’t seem totally out of place despite having to be dubbed due to his at the time limited English. Pele’s role in the film also extended to choreographing the footballing scenes and while there are obviously elements of the match that are fantastical (more of which later) it manages to draw you in far more than you might imagine.

At this point I should probably state that I absolutely adore Escape to Victory. I’m not sure exactly which of Caine’s films I have seen most, but there is a strong possibility that this may be the one. This is of course Caine’s second collaboration with Huston following The Man Who Would Be King and while I would never claim that this matches the pure quality of that work it does share some of the same joy. There is such a warmth to the whole endeavour that the sillier aspects are not only forgivable, but actually add to the enjoyment. How can you not love a film that has Co Prins, the former Ajax and Netherlands striker reacting furiously to the cheating of the German team by gesturing to them with an Adolf Hitler impersonation. In fact the whole match sequence is pure joy and clearly had an enormous influence on Aardman’s recent caveman footballing release Early Man right down to the crucial late penalty save. Of course it is all just that little bit over the top with the violence allowed by the biased referee particularly extreme, but it is impossible not to be swept along with it and when the allies grab their first goal to start a comeback from four-nil down it is still a glorious moment. It also leads to possibly my favourite bit in the film as the players head to the dressing room for half-time shortly after scoring the goal. Caine’s delivery of the lines “we scored a goal, Terry scored a goal” to the injured players who have missed it has such a childlike glee that they never fail to make me smile.

As the players come out for the second half having decided to commit to trying to win the game rather than escaping another key element in the film’s success is ideally showcased. Bill Conti’s score is absolutely perfect and it’s stirring quality again makes it impossible not to be swept along with events. That ability to carry you along with the action is crucial as it ensures that when the football becomes that little bit less realistic you don’t really care. The sight of Ardiles flicking the ball over the Germans off the back of his heel for Osman to bring the ball down on his head sending a defender in completely the wrong direction is the sort of thing you would never see in an actual football match, but boy is it fun. That it’s all done in slow motion drawing even more attention to the unlikeliness of events shows the confidence Huston has in what he is doing by that point. All that is just a build up though to what is to come from Pele. His character Luis Fernandez has been off the field for much of the game following a clattering challenge, but with the score at 4-3 he tells Corby he is fit to return. I’m not entirely sure what his injury is supposed to be, but I suspect it might be a broken rib. When he returns to the field he does so with one arm constantly held across his chest, but that doesn’t stop him getting hold of the ball and dribbling around a few Germans. He isn’t even stopped when they start repeatedly punching him in the injured rib. He retains the ball long enough to pick out a man out wide before making his way into the box and equalising with a spectacular overhead kick that is repeated three or four times in slow motion with close-up focus on Pele. It is one of the least realistic football sequences I have ever seen and simultaneously one of the best. It’s totally ridiculous and totally wonderful all at the same time. When Max Von Sydow as the Nazi officer and former international who initially arranged the fixture with Colby can’t prevent himself from jumping to his feet to applaud I know exactly how he feels. He definitely shouldn’t do it as the failure of the propaganda exercise already means things are likely not going to end well for him, but how can you not celebrate something as purely joyous as that moment? Joyous celebrations are certainly the order of the day as after Hatch makes his penalty save he immediately hoofs the ball down the field and is mobbed by his teammates with very little attention seemingly paid to the fact that the match presumably is still going on. By that stage though all bets are off with realism cast aside and the whole experience is none the worse for it.

Behind the enjoyable romp that is Escape to Victory there are moments of harshness that help to give the film an added depth. The very first scene helps to set up a real jeopardy for anybody looking to escape as an attempt ends in a prisoner being gunned down. It also adds credence to Colby’s reluctance to be involved in any further escape attempts as he doesn’t want anybody’s blood on his hands. Even more effective is the entrance of the Eastern European players Colby has requested as they arrive straight from concentration camps. Huston does a terrific job of acknowledging the horrific conditions they have been living in and the genuine shock of Colby and his men at the condition they arrive in. In what is in the main a fun, silly romp of a film that change in tone could and perhaps should be incredibly jarring and even a little uncomfortable. In the hands of Huston it works incredibly well thanks to the quiet moment of reflection he allows. It isn’t the only example of an acknowledgement of the darkness of the environment in which the film is set, but it is possibly the most effective. Huston was a genuinely wonderful filmmaker and he consistently manages to make things work better than they have any real right to do. While we are on the subject of the slightly harsher edged scenes I will also draw attention to the moment when to bring Hatch into the side they have to break the arm of their regular keeper. Again it is a wonderful piece of direction as without showing anything explicit Huston creates a scene that makes me wince every time I see it. Caine may have only worked with the great director twice, but there is more than enough on show in those two films alone to emphasise that his reputation as one of the best is entirely justified.

Caine himself gives a really lovely performance. His easy charm and light comic touch are perfect while he of course has the dramatic chops to cope with the more serious script elements. His scene exploding at Hatch after he tackles a player to the ground is pure Caine magic with a “bloody” every third word. It’s a sequence that brought to mind the drill scene in The Man Who Would Be King and after a run of films that have often made little of Caine’s talents it is a real joy to behold. He also has a pleasing chemistry with Stallone who has a similar charm throughout. His constant frustration at the football getting in the way of his plans is played for wonderful comedy effect. His world weary cry of “this frigging game is wrecking my life” is brought back with slight variations and never fails to get a laugh.

Away from the two main stars there are numerous excellent performances. Von Sydow in particular is impressive as Major Steiner, a genuinely decent man whose entirely innocent suggestion of a game of football is taken totally out of his hands. One of my favourite performances comes from the always value for money Clive Merrison as the camp’s resident forger. He gives a beautifully funny and eccentric turn delivering the lovely line “You must realise it’s my busy time. Everybody wants to escape in the good weather” when asked how long his papers will take to be produced by Hatch. Daniel Massey gives a similarly excellent performance which showcases a wonderful gift for comedic facial expressions as the camp’s Colonel and head of the escape committee. There is a pleasing eccentricity about the whole of the cast of characters in the camp that brought to mind the wonderful episode of Ripping Yarns, Escape From Stalag Luft 112B and always leaves me half expecting to see Michael Palin in the background building a glider out of the inside of a toilet roll or Roy Kinnear leading the search for the escaped Hatch.

I’m not saying that Escape to Victory is empirically a brilliant film. I’m perfectly willing to accept that the joy it brings me is partly due to how much I loved it in my youth. I maintain though that the film remains an enormous amount of fun. A wonderful director, rousing score and incredibly eclectic cast all come together to create one of my favourite feel-good films of all time.

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

“We’re the cavalry. It would be bad form to arrive in advance of schedule. In the nick of time would do nicely.” Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur

A Bridge Too Far sees us return to World War II with the focus on Operation Market Garden this time around. In September 1944 with the Allies increasingly confident of winning the War an ambitious plan to capture three key bridges in Netherlands is put forward by Montgomery with the aim of speeding up the march on Germany.

There is a scene in A Bridge Too Far when Brigadier General Gavin, played by Ryan O’Neal, reaches a US base camp looking for a soldier called Major Cook. He is pointed in his general direction and as he calls out his name we see a soldier with his back to camera. He turns and the camera focuses on his face as it is revealed Cook is being played by Robert Redford. It is absolutely the introduction of a genuine movie star and in a normal film would have happened in the first five or ten minutes. A Bridge Too Far isn’t a normal film though and so this introduction happens a full two hours into it’s running time. It’s a reflection of the depth of what remains one of the most remarkable casts ever assembled on film.

The size and quality of the cast is entirely in keeping with A Bridge Too Far’s whole production. It is epic in every sense of the word. It is huge credit therefore to everybody involved that for all the spectacle involved the film manages to retain elements of real subtlety. On first glimpse it would be easy to peg the film as a ‘stiff-upper lip’ style patriotic movie with Anthony Hopkins’ Frost insistence on packing his golf clubs and dinner jacket before leaving for Holland, while Christopher Good as Carlyle faces down the Germans clutching his trusty umbrella suggesting just that. In reality there is far more depth to the film than those initial introductions suggest and while there is plenty of heroic acts on show there is also a huge focus on the stupidity of war and the devastation it has caused. It isn’t an easy balance to strike, but A Bridge Too Far does an extremely good job of doing just that.

In striking that balance so well huge credit must go to both the film’s writer and director. Originally a novel by Cornelius Ryan the screenplay was written by the late great William Goldman. One of Hollywood’s best, Goldman had already had huge success with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men and his adaption of his own novel Marathon Man. He would of course also go on to write the novel and adapt the screenplay for one of my favourite ever films, The Princess Bride. He does an incredible job with A Bridge Too Far as with such a large cast of characters he holds everything together superbly and manages to create characters you care about even if they are only on screen very briefly. Perhaps the film most similar in scope so far covered by this blog has been Battle of Britain, which also featured a large star cast. In that case it made the film feel somewhat disjointed and not sufficiently engaging. Goldman manages to avoid that trap and despite having an even longer run time it fills that time far better. What works particularly well is Goldman’s use of humour. There are numerous very witty lines throughout and incredibly for a war epic arguably more laugh out loud moments than you see in some comedies. Crucially this never detracts from the drama and tension of events and even more importantly never trivialises their experiences. Edward Fox’s character of Lieutenant General Horrocks is perhaps the best example of this. We first meet him delivering a briefing to a room filled with soldiers and he never misses the opportunity to crack a joke as he details the aims of Operation Market Garden. The next time we see him he is riding with Caine’s Vandeleur and as he passes the men he is constantly shouting out good mornings and offering more jokes, but in between he becomes much more serious as he speaks to Vandeleur. It’s a clear indication that the jokes are there to lift his men and boost morale, but there is a more serious side to him. As with many of the characters given the enormity of the cast his screen time is limited, but such is the quality of the writing and performance that he feels fully rounded and most importantly ensures that the audience care about him.

In the directors seat is Richard Attenborough who is equally on the top of his game. The scale of the movie is immense and is first on show with the multitude of soldiers lined up to enter the planes ready to fly to Holland. It is shortly followed by a lovely scene of a village church service as the sound of their singing is slowly drowned out by the engine noise as a battery of planes fly over. Every opportunity to showcase the scale of the production is taken and never more so than as we watch soldier after soldier parachute out of the planes. It is beautifully shot and with an added dimension as we then switch to the jumpers point of view. The brief change of perspective works incredibly well and the whole sequence is something of a triumph. That it is followed so swiftly by another remarkable scene as after regrouping the soldiers come across a group of escaped inmates of a lunatic asylum is even more impressive. As the elderly patients cackle and slowly march through the trees we are transported into a horror film that neatly reflects the horror of war while Connery’s quip “do you think they know something we don’t” is a classic example of how a dark comedy is used to ease the tension.

Not long after the soldiers land they find themselves thrown into their first battle and again Attenborough excels. With guns and tank fire coming from seemingly every direction and the camera moving rapidly you get an incredible sense of the chaos of battle. Just as effective is the silence that falls shortly after the battle. It is often those moments of silence that are most effective and Attenborough uses them very well notably towards the very end of the film as time is given to a sequence of the burying of a large number of soldiers. Just as important is the time that is given to characters away from the main group of soldiers. The gunning down by the Germans of the old lady whose home Frost and his men commandeer is particularly brutal. Perhaps most effecting though is the fate of the Dutch family we meet at the very start of the film. Their excitement as they realise the occupying Germans are withering, the young sons excitement at seeing an allied spy plane and their optimism that their ordeal will soon be over offer a startling juxtaposition to their ultimate fate. The father picking up his sons body and placing him onto a pile of corpses is devastatingly grim and is the clearest indication of the harsh underbelly of the film. Balancing such moments with the humour and adventure elsewhere and maintaining an even tone is an incredible achievement by Goldman and Attenborough in particular. It is also the reason why the film’s runtime of just under three hours feels justified. Yes it would have been possible to cut the film down, but it would likely have been those quieter moments that were lost and without them the overall effectiveness of the piece would have been dampened.

Now back to the cast. I’ve mentioned a few names already, but it really is very difficult to cover everybody. Firstly there are a number of familiar faces who have already featured heavily in this blog. As well as Connery (The Man Who Would Be King) there are Elliot Gould and James Caan (Harry and Walter Go To New York), Alun Armstrong (Get Carter), Denholm Elliott (Too Late The Hero) and Laurence Olivier (Sleuth) all in roles of various different sizes. Such is the size of the cast that despite the length of the film nobody has a huge amount of screen time (Connery and Hopkins possibly enjoy the most) and even when they do they rarely share scenes with each other. Of those mentioned only Gould has a scene with Caine and though brief it confirms my suspicions that despite Harry and Walter Go To New York being something of a disappointment the two have a terrific chemistry together. To emphasise the sheer volume of stars involved it is fifty minutes into the film before Caine has his first proper scene, Gould arrives over an hour in while Olivier only just makes it before the two hour mark. Despite Olivier’s Dutch Doctor Spaander being one of the last significant characters to be introduced his impact is immense. After arranging a meeting with the Germans to try and broker a short truce to allow the wounded soldiers to be moved he is driven through the Dutch streets almost totally destroyed from the fighting with bodies and devastation everywhere. The look of horror and sadness Olivier manages to express in his face is something to behold and it is an incredibly powerful scene. It is hardly a revelation for me to state what an incredible actor he was, but in one single short scene he demonstrates exactly how special a screen presence he guaranteed.

Of course there were plenty of actors sharing billing with Caine for the first time as well. Dirk Bogarde, O’Neal, Redford, Hopkins, Maximilian Schell, Fox and Liv Ullmann to name just a few. All give excellent performances with no real weak links on show while Hardy Kruger is terrific as Major General Ludwig a genuinely capable and ruthless villain who manages to inject a genuine tension into proceedings as he attempts to destroy the bridge. There is also a prominent role for Gene Hackman who copes reasonably well despite being saddled with a Polish accent that he often struggles with. In total the cast has seven winners of acting Oscars and a further five nominees and must surely rank as one of the most accomplished mass ensemble casts ever gathered for one production. The number of stars on show is almost numbing, but shouldn’t detract from the variety of lesser names, but equally terrific actors on show. I have mentioned Christopher Good as the eccentric, but brave Major Carlyle, but there are also wonderful turns from the likes of Paul Copley as Private Wicks and Frank Grimes as Major Fuller. It really is an actor spotters dream with cameos from veteran character actor Eric Chitty, Harry Ditson (Du Quois in Top Secret!), John Ratzenberger and Stanley Lebor (Howard in Ever Decreasing Circles) all particularly appealing to my cultural frame of reference.

It’s at this point that I realise I haven’t really mentioned Caine’s performance yet. He only has a handful of scenes and there is a particular focus on humour in pretty much all of them. It’s a challenge Caine is more than ready for and suffice to say he is absolutely brilliant whenever he is on screen. I mentioned his scenes with Gould and Fox and both are a joy. At the end of his scene with Fox in which Horrocks has given him further detail of his task in the grand plan he is asked, “think you’ll be able to manage it?” As Vandeleur Caine responds with a twinkle in his eye “I’ve got nothing else planned for this afternoon.” As his face breaks into a smile he bangs on the bonnet of the vehicle and is driven off as he stands upright and heads into the distance. He looks amazing and it is the absolute epitome of cool. In a film absolutely full of stars that moment alone is definitive proof that he not only belongs amongst them, but is right up there with the best of them.

It had been quite some time since my last watch of A Bridge Too Far and though I remembered I had previously enjoyed it there is no doubt my appreciation of the movie is even greater than I expected. From a purely technical perspective it is a remarkable piece of work and Attenborough’s direction brings it together beautifully. More though it is a much more nuanced look at the devastation and chaos of war than might be imagined at first glance. It isn’t perfect and running at just a quick toilet break under three hours it isn’t a casual undertaking to sit down and watch, but it remains one of the better examples of the star studded war epic. Perfect viewing for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

“You see Hans? It’s infallible. I can always tell a thorough going bastard when I see one” Colonel Kurt Steiner

If there has been one genre of film that has dominated this blog so far then it is definitely the war film. With events still so fresh in people’s memories and a whole generation of filmmakers influenced by the war that probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. What is more surprising is that among such a volume and variety of films within the genre The Eagle Has Landed still manages to feel quite different.

The film focuses around an audacious German plot to kidnap Winston Churchill and with the war going against them use his capture as leverage in any potential peace deal. The mission is led by Colonel Steiner, played by Caine, a decorated war hero whose English education makes him the ideal man for the job. He is joined not just by his usual men, but also by Liam Devlin, played by Donald Sutherland, an Irish academic and IRA member who is drawn to the cause by his desire for a united Ireland. With Devlin undercover and the Germans posing as a Polish paratrooper unit they successfully infiltrate a small Norfolk village that is soon to play host to Churchill. A nearby American base threatens the German plans and when their cover is blown Steiner is left to try and carry out his mission alone.

The Eagle Has Landed has two major hurdles to try and overcome. Firstly, how do you make events sufficiently dramatic when an audience with even a passing knowledge of history will already know the likely outcome? Secondly, how do you ensure that your predominantly British and American audience are going to engage in a plot that requires you to have at least some sympathy for the viewpoint and end goals of a group of Nazis? They are two significant challenges and how the film attempts to overcome them and the fact that it predominantly is very successful in doing so is what makes The Eagle Has Landed stand out from some of the more generic war films of the era.

Key to the way the film tackles that first issue is the general sense of folly and hopelessness that is evident throughout. When the plan is first mentioned it is seen by Anthony Quayle’s Admiral Canaris as an example of just how warped Adolf Hitler’s state of mind had become with initial plans only being drawn up as a way to appease him. As the plans take on a more serious and official nature there is still the sense that the mission is a fool’s errand with the ‘heroes’ doomed to fail. That mood rarely slips and is consistently acknowledged by the characters on screen whether it’s Devlin stating that “the only time this plan makes any sense to me is when I’m drunk” or Steiner making plans for how they will respond to the likelihood of their cover being blown. Instead we get to focus on the characters, their motivations for being involved and the strange, but undeniable heroism they exhibit rather than the success or failure of their mission being the main point of the film.

The success of the film comes down largely to how well it manages to overcome the second hurdle in making its disparate cast of characters into unlikely heroes. If the audience feels no sympathy for the characters then the film simply wouldn’t work. Fortunately Steiner, Devlin and the initiator of the plot, Colonel Radl, played by Robert Duvall all manage to establish themselves as mostly likeable characters. Tom Mankiewicz, already with three highly successful Bond films to his name adapted the script from the Jack Higgins novel and it is fair to say it abandons any thought of subtlety to get the audience at least partly on side with Steiner and his men. When we first meet him he and his men interfere with an operation to round up a group of Jewish civilians, mostly made up of women and children. His attempts to save one woman and her subsequent cold blooded murder by the SS is a very obvious message that while both may be Nazi’s there is a clear difference in their morality. While it may lack for subtlety it is no doubt effective and coupled with Caine’s innate likability it manages to immediately create a sense of goodwill towards Steiner and his men.

As the story develops there are further moments in the script that take the opportunity to remind the audience that the idea of one side being good and the other bad is something of an over simplification. Indeed it is ultimately an act of heroism by one of the German soldiers, as he gives his life to save a young girl, that results in their true identities being discovered. Perhaps most effective though is the introduction of Colonel Pitts the commanding officer of the American base, played with great relish by Larry Hagman. Pitts is an absolutely monstrous character that stands in stark contrast to the dignified Steiner. As we first meet him he is reacting with absolute devastation at the news he is to be moved before he can see any action. As a consequence when he hears that there are German soldiers on his doorstep he ignores the calls to ask for support and despite his lack of experience embarks on a reckless and ill-fated attempt to make himself into a hero. Pitts is a wonderfully created character that feels like a cross between the worst excesses of the characters from Platoon and Dr Strangelove. His reckless stupidity and the lack of respect he garners from his men gives a wonderful contrast to Steiner and again blurs the sense of right or wrong very nicely.

The scenes following on from the German’s identities being revealed represent the high points of the whole film. Following on from Hagman’s madcap cameo as Pitts there are some very nice moments between his successor Captain Clark and Steiner. Clark couldn’t be more different from Pitts as he shows himself to be a calm and capable soldier and the obvious respect between him and his German enemy shines from the screen, while his line to Steiner “there’s no such thing as death with honour” is particularly effective. With that scene shortly followed by a quietly powerful moment as Steiner’s men choose to sacrifice themselves to allow him one final chance to carry out the mission and Radl’s attempt to save his junior officer when he realises he will be used as a scapegoat for the failure of the mission representing a particularly poignant period in the film.

Where the film is perhaps less strong is in it’s direction. Caine and other cast members have been critical of John Sturges’ efforts in the past with the sense that the veteran director had lost his enthusiasm for the job by that stage. This was Sturges’ last film after a stellar career that included the likes of The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on a highly impressive CV. His efforts here are by no means terrible, but at the same time feel curiously flat. It is definitely the case that the film works despite the direction rather than because of it and that is a huge tribute to both the cast and Mankiewicz’s screenplay. The other element of the film I feel is less successful is the love story between Devlin and Jenny Agutter’s Molly. Sutherland and Agutter are very good together, but the speed at which Molly goes from having met Devlin to being so deeply in love that she is willing to commit murder and treason for him feels somewhat rushed to say the least.

Any such issues are mostly mitigated by the general quality of the actors on show. Caine is a terrific piece of casting as Steiner. Without such a likeable screen presence at the helm the film simply wouldn’t work. He often has a quiet air of authority in his films and that certainly comes across in The Eagle Has Landed so that it is quite easy to believe he would be a well liked and respected officer. An interesting aspect of the film from an acting point of view is the accent work, or in many cases lack of accents. It is established early on that Steiner was English educated and speaks the language perfectly, but Caine does add a soft German accent. It is less noticeable than his slightly harsher attempt in The Last Valley and generally works absolutely fine. The rest of the cast are an interesting mix as Duvall and Sutherland maintain accents throughout with different levels of success. On the other hand a number of actors stick to their usual accents with Donald Pleasence a notable example as Himmler while somewhat more unfortunately Quayle has a German accent in his first scene, which he then seems to have given up on when he reappears.

Accents aside the cast is very strong. Sutherland gives an excellent performance as Devlin. Through a mixture of humour, natural charisma and a slight softening of the character he manages to make Devlin, like Steiner, into an engaging and likeable figure despite often having a somewhat blurred morality. Hagman as I’ve mentioned is an absolute tour-de-force as Pitts and makes a huge impact in a very short space of time. Duvall’s role is significantly less showy, but he brings an understated touch of class as he benefits from getting to play alongside the likes of Quayle and Pleasence in their minor roles. A lot of credit should go to Agutter as well as although I’ve stated that the romance between Molly and Devlin seems rushed she is largely responsible for the fact it still works sufficiently enough so as to not derail the action. Both Jean Marsh and John Standing give wonderful quietly dignified performances as two of the villagers on different sides of the battle. Such is the size and overall quality of the cast that it is difficult to give everybody a mention, but it would be remiss of me to ignore the superb John Barrett, most notable to me as Eric Olthwaite’s Dad in the brilliant Ripping Yarns, whose exasperated “more bloody foreigners” after it’s revealed his village has been invaded by Germans is just one of a number of lovely little comedy moments.

In one of his now several autobiographies, The Elephant To Hollywood, Caine described The Eagle Has Landed as a film that could have been brilliant, but in the end was mostly mediocre. While it certainly isn’t brilliant to describe it as mediocre feels a little unfair. It remains a mostly enjoyable, if flawed adventure story with the odd twist along the way that stands up pretty well in the lengthening list of war films I’ve covered in this blog so far.

Too Late The Hero (1970)

“If you want to start playing bloody heroes you’ve got another problem…I’m not bloody coming with you” Tosh Hearne

Too Late The Hero sees Caine once again in World War Two this time as part of a small regiment charged with destroying a Japanese radio on an island in the Philippines. Cliff Robertson stars as the American Lieutenant Sam Lawson who despite his reluctance is assigned to the mission to destroy the radio thanks to his ability to speak Japanese. He joins a fairly rag-bag crew of British soldiers including Caine as the medical orderly Private Tosh Hearne.

The film was written and directed by Robert Aldrich who had achieved a big hit three years earlier with The Dirty Dozen and Too Late The Hero is very much cut from the same cloth. As a result it also has a lot of similarities to a film looked at previously in this blog, which also borrowed its structure from The Dirty Dozen, Play Dirty. As in Play Dirty we see an outsider officer parachuted into a less than conventional regiment and sent on a dangerous mission, which first requires an arduous journey. In the 1969 film that saw Caine as the officer traversing the desert where as in Too Late The Hero he is back in the ranks as they make their way through the thick jungle environment. Both films play with the moral ambiguity of their cast of characters and focus in on their difficult and often violent relationships and retain a substantial cynicism to the idea of heroism.

While Too Late The Hero shares many of the same themes as Play Dirty it doesn’t quite use them as effectively. There are numerous moments that are designed to shock or jolt the audience that don’t really work as well as they should. Often this is down to the direction, which fails to make the most of them. An example of this is when Denholm Elliott’s Captain Hornsby makes the decision to execute two wounded Japanese soldiers in cold blood. It’s an early example of how there is no clear good or bad side in war and could have been a genuinely chilling moment. Instead it doesn’t quite have as strong an effect as it should as Aldrich chooses to include everything in shot, but with obviously fake bright red blood it’s a case of a scene being let down by showing a little too much on the screen rather than using more subtle techniques for greater effectiveness. Far more effective is the way this scene sets up a later twist as two Brit soldiers are captured by the Japanese and their treatment does an interesting job of again challenging the traditional idea of the goodies and the baddies.

In addition to some directing difficulties there are a few early issues with the script too. Much of the early dialogue once we meet Caine and the other Brits doesn’t feel particularly natural and they all have an odd habit of bursting into laughter at the comments of the other soldiers even though there hasn’t been anything even remotely funny said. Fortunately as we get further into the action the dialogue starts to feel more natural and in more intimate scenes between individuals it is significantly better. That is most obviously showcased in the beginning and end scenes of the film, which Robertson shares with first Henry Fonda and then with Caine in its later stages. In fact the film gradually improves and is at its best during the last third as Caine comes more to the forefront and Aldrich shows some more interesting touches not least in the way its final scenes are shot to leave a significant period of doubt as to who has survived and who hasn’t.

Once the dialogue settles down there is no doubt that it is Caine who is the stand-out performer in the cast. Hearne is an interesting character as he shows equal reluctance as Lawson to his mission, struggles with authority and on more than one occasion suggests they all just give up and go home. At the same time he shows some significant bravery in treating his colleagues, comes up with a daring plan at the end and shows some genuine affection towards some, if not all his fellow soldiers. Caine has some fun playing with these elements and particularly in the later scenes as only he and Lawson remain he makes for a compelling presence. His speech to Lawson to try and persuade him to give up on the idea of getting back to camp and just hide out instead is the highlight of the film and is performed to perfection. Too Late The Hero isn’t a brilliant film, but it shows again how Caine has the ability to make something significantly better than it might have been through his own strength of character and performance.

The quality of Caine’s portrayal is perhaps even more impressive as much of the rest of the cast are a little more erratic in their performances. Robertson is solid enough as Lawson without ever really dominating the action. With a more substantial actor in that role it’s likely that would have been considered the lead role, but despite the film really being about him it is definitely Caine who feels like the star. Henry Fonda’s appearance is brief, but notable and he is unsurprisingly excellent throughout, bringing a touch of class and gravitas to the proceedings. The same can be said of Harry Andrews who I have seen a lot of since I started this blog having also appeared in A Hill in Korea, Play Dirty and Battle of Britain and here he looks very much at home in the role of the British CO Colonel Thompson. The same can’t always be said of Denholm Elliott who I am generally an enormous fan of, but suffers slightly due to the nature of the script. Whereas the moral ambiguity present in Caine’s character Tosh is a qualified success with some others including Elliott’s Hornsby it doesn’t feel like it’s explored in quite the same depth and as a result the character and therefore the performance feel somewhat inconsistent.

Too Late The Hero is a solid addition to the ever growing list of War films already covered in this blog. At times it falls victim to trying to tick the boxes of a previously successful formula, but it improves as the film goes on and Caine often steals the show. Play Dirty is a better film that tackles similar subject matter, but Too Late The Hero makes for a watchable enough alternative.

Battle of Britain (1969)

“We’re not easily frightened” Sir David Kelly

For the last Michael Caine film of the sixties we make a return to the familiar territory of World War II.

It’s little surprise that in his early career War films were so prevalent with the events so fresh in the minds of audiences and so many remarkable true stories to portray. By 1969 though the attitude to conflict had been somewhat effected by the ongoing Vietnam War. It’s notable that the most recent War film on Caine’s CV was Play Dirty, a film with a clear anti-War message and a cynical attitude to the idea of the heroism of battle. In contrast Battle of Britain is a much more traditional and patriotic effort recounting the true events in the skies over England during the Second World War.

Battle of Britain is a remarkable technical feat that even nearly fifty years on still looks remarkable. The film had a hefty budget that it struggled to make back in the cinemas and the majority of that money went on securing an impressive arsenal of aircraft. Director Guy Hamilton, who had previously been at the helm of the second Harry Palmer film Funeral in Berlin, does a magnificent job of bringing the dogfighting to life. The scenes in the sky are superbly realised and thankfully manage to keep the attention of the audience for the running time of the film. Scenes of the dogfights taking place over farmers working the fields make for a particularly effective contrast and add an element of domesticity to events.

It’s fortunate that the air battles manage to remain so impressive as sadly the remainder of the film is significantly less engaging. The cast of actors assembled is spectacular with no less than fourteen stars given equal top billing including Caine, Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer and Trevor Howard. That cast is mostly wasted though as characters are given little background and no real time to develop. Several only have a very brief period on screen and when they do appear they rarely have any opportunity to shine. It means that although the aerial battles are technically spectacular the results carry little emotional weight. Of the cast of characters, which is large even by the standards of this kind of war epic, only Plummer and Susannah York’s married couple and then briefly Ian McShane’s young pilot are given any real back story away from their military escapades. Even these are given far too little time to develop though and so the emotional pay-off as we learn their ultimate fate just isn’t there.

As a consequence of their limited opportunities it’s difficult to pick out anybody from the cast who particularly shine. Richardson gives a nice little performance in his one scene. In many ways his little cameo sums up the stereotypically Britishness of the film as he bemoans the fact he lost his temper with Curt Jergens’ emissary from Hitler despite the fact he never raised his voice or showed any real emotion. Howard is quietly impressive and possibly my favourite performance comes from the always terrific Olivier. His portrayal of Chief Marshall Dowding is refreshingly downbeat as he sees the reality of the odds against him and his pessimism stands as a refreshing contrast to much of the rest of the film. Of the younger cast it’s McShane who does the most to impress as he shows a little more charisma and subtlety than for example Edward Fox who equipped with a cravat akin to the one he would later wear in The Day of the Jackal, feels much more caricatured particularly after bailing out and landing in a families greenhouse he responds to the offer of a cigarette from a young boy with an over the top “thanks awfully old chap.”

Of all the actors to suffer with limited opportunities it’s possible that Caine is the worst affected. His last couple of performances in Male of the Species and The Italian Job have seen him on absolutely top form, but that certainly can’t be said here. His role is limited as he doesn’t appear until after the first half hour and is killed off less than an hour later. Having a small amount of screen time hasn’t necessarily negated a good performance for Caine previously, but here he is peculiarly flat. As an officer he again turns to a posher more clipped accent and coupled with a not particularly interesting character (his main character trait seems to be that he owns a dog) this gives a slightly dead tone to his line delivery. I’ve mentioned before in this blog that Caine is often at his best when his personality is allowed to shine through in a role and that never happens here. The banter between the pilots when they are in the air never really flows or feels natural at any point, but it’s Caine’s that falls most flat and there are times when he sounds more like he is attending an accountant’s convention rather than in the middle of a life or death battle for the skies. It’s a shame because we know he has significantly more to offer, but his overall insipid performance is symptomatic of a film that makes very little use of a truly remarkable cast.

Away from the dogfights the film is at its strongest in some of its smaller moments. The sight of the observer corps, little old men in tin hats being the first line of defence in spotting the oncoming German aircraft, a parading group of civil defence volunteers, better known thanks to Dads Army as the home guard, outside the local pub or York’s Maggie Harvey standing up to the bullying Michael Bates character all manage to be quietly effecting. Ultimately though it remains the technical expertise coupled with the importance of the events portrayed that make Battle of Britain worth coming back to.