Well, if nobody has anything to say, I’ll share my comments.
This movie was, back in my mid-teens, my first introduction to Alistair MacLean as a writer. It’s based on his book, and he wrote the screenplay at the same time, after being asked by his friend Richard Burton if he could write something that he (Burton) could take his 12-yr-old son to see in the cinema. Burton of course ended up starring in the movie, and I wonder if MacLean had him in mind from the get-go . . .
MacLean wrote his own screenplay for the movie at the same time as he wrote the book, so I’m sure I won’t surprise anyone when I say this is the most faithful film adaption of any of his books. Curiously, he himself was a little disappointed by the film. And while I will concede that maybe they could have trimmed off a 15-20min without losing anything of substance, it’s still brilliant, and as film adaptions of his books go, it ranks second only to The Guns Of Navarone, which we covered a few months back.
The major difference between the book and the film is the body count - it’s much higher in the film, they don’t go shooting everyone pretty much on sight in the book. I don’t regard this as a major issue, after all, they’re fighting for their lives trying to get out of the castle, it’s the law of the jungle. Speaking of body counts, this movie is Clint Eastwood’s highest on-screen body count as an actor!
This has a major twist on the “one of us is a traitor” cliche, which is something MacLean did well as a writer, certainly in his earlier work, there’s be scenes in the books where you’d think, “oh, I know what cliche is coming up here” and then it wouldn’t. (Some of his later books were a little weaker in that respect, and I had the ending of “Circus” figured out before I was even halfway through.)
It’s something that really needs to be watched a second time to fully appreciate all the twists and turns in the story. Or maybe I’m just saying that because the first time I saw the film was late at night, my mother recommended staying up for it, and it finished at about 1am, so I wasn’t at my best by then!
Michael Hordern as Admiral Rolland is worth a mention here, because yes, that’s the same man who narrated the original animated adaption of Paddington Bear! Hard to believe! He and Patrick Wymark (Colonel Turner) have some great scenes together, although there’s one line in the book from Rolland to Turner that sadly didn’t make it to the film. I won’t repeat it here simply because it sort of gives a clue to the ending.
One thing I can never stop myself from doing when I show this film to someone is, when Major Smith (Burton) rendezvouses with Mary Ellison (Mary Ure) for the first time, say, “if that’s what she looked like after jumping from a plane and trudging through miles of snow, no wonder he was so eager to see her!” Of course, his own line when he rejoins his team, “I ran into this fabulous blonde” - is pure gold, because we know he’s telling the truth, but we also know, as does he, that there’s no way it will be believed! That line isn’t in the book, and I wonder if he only thought of it after the book came out (the book was 1967, the film 1968).
This film (and book) actually influenced a scene in one of my Visionaries fanfics, “Foreign Eyes”. There’s a scene I wrote in it where Witterquick basically does with the Darkling Lords what Major Smith does in this with the Germans.
In any event, yes, this is a great film!
