The Eagle Has Landed — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Filming

Filming took place in 1976 over 16 weeks. Tom Mankiewicz thought the script was the best he had ever written, but felt, "John Sturges, for some reason, had given up" and did a poor job, and that editor Anne V. Coates was the one who saved the film and made it watchable.

Michael Caine had initially been excited at the prospect of working with Sturges. During shooting, Sturges told Caine that he only worked to earn enough money to go fishing. Caine wrote later in his autobiography: "The moment the picture finished, he took the money and went. [Producer] Jack Wiener later told me [Sturges] never came back for the editing nor for any of the other good post-production sessions that are where a director does some of his most important work. The picture wasn't bad, but I still get angry when I think of what it could have been with the right director. We had committed the old European sin of being impressed by someone just because he came from Hollywood."

Cornwall was used to represent the Channel Islands and Berkshire for East Anglia. The majority of the film, set in the fictional village of Studley Constable, was filmed at Mapledurham on the A4074 in Oxfordshire and features the village church, as well as Mapledurham Watermill and Mapledurham House, used for a manor house where Winston Churchill is taken. A fake water wheel was added to the 15th-century structure for the film. Mock buildings such as shops and a pub were constructed on site in Mapledurham, while interiors were filmed at Twickenham Studios. The "Landsvoort Airfield" scenes were filmed at RAF St Mawgan, 5 miles (8 km) from Newquay.

The sequence set in Alderney was filmed in Charlestown, near St Austell in Cornwall. Some of the filming took place at Rock in Cornwall. The railway station sequence where Steiner and his men make their first appearance was filmed in Rovaniemi, Finland. The parachuting scenes were carried out by members of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers parachute display team on Wednesday, 28 April 1976. The exit shots were filmed from a DC-3 at Dunkeswell Airfield in Devon. The landings onto the beach were filmed on Holkham Beach in Norfolk.

Home media

While US and UK VHS cassettes had the 123-minute US cut, most DVDs and Blu-rays available worldwide feature the original UK theatrical cut, which in DVD region 2 and 4 countries runs 130 minutes at 25 fps (PAL speed). The two exceptions are:

The first US (NTSC) DVD, from Artisan Entertainment, had some missing scenes reinstated for a runtime of 131 minutes. It has been superseded by a Shout! Factory Blu-ray/DVD dual-format set, containing the UK theatrical cut and various extras.

In 2004, Carlton Visual Entertainment in the UK released a two-disc Special Edition PAL DVD version, which contains various extras and two versions of the film: the UK theatrical version and a newly restored, extended 145-minute version, equivalent to 151 minutes at 24 fps (film speed). Although the packaging claims otherwise, both versions have a 2.0 stereo surround soundtrack.

The extended version contains a number of scenes that were deleted even before the European cinema release:

Alternative opening: originally, the film was intended to start with Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasence) arriving at Schloss Hohenschwangau for a conference with Hitler, Canaris, Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels. It precedes the scenes under the opening credits, which are a long, aerial shot of a staff car leaving the castle in question. The deleted scene explains why Schloss Hohenschwangau appears in the credits but not in the film.

In an extended scene in which Radl arrives at Abwehr headquarters, he discusses his health with a German Army doctor, played by Ferdy Mayne.

Scene at the Berlin University where Liam Devlin is a lecturer

Scene in Landsvoort where Steiner and von Neustadt discuss the mission, its merits, and consequences

Extended scene of Devlin's arrival at Studley Constable in which Joanna Grey and he discuss their part in the mission

Scene of Devlin driving his motorbike through the centre of the village and on to the cottage, where he inspects the barn before returning to the village

Scene in which Devlin reads poetry to Molly Prior.

Extended scene in which Molly interrupts Devlin shortly after he receives the army vehicles

In a scene on the boat at the end of the film showing the fate of von Neustadt, the scene is also featured in the Special Edition DVD stills gallery.

The Eagle Has Landed

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The Eagle Has Landed

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