I can't be objective about this film because I loved it so much growing up - the quintessential Saturday night action movie, with its brooding heroes, sexy ladies, rousing score, stunning photography.
There are some things unique to this which make it especially lovely: the alpine setting, leading to fights on cable cars, snug pubs, chilly towers, castles on mountain tops, soldiers in whites (has there ever been a bad action movie set in the snow? On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Die Hard 2...); it has some great dames, with always watchable Ingrid Pitt plus stage legend Mary Ure blasting away with a machine gun at the end; it has Clint Eastwood has a handbag - kind of not really needed by the plot, though well covered ("I needed someone I could trust") and with some nice dry lines of humour; there is an Alistair Maclean plot par excellance: gang on a mission, gang includes some traitors, mission has a twist.
Most of all there is Richard Burton, ruthless and kicking arse, and getting ten minutes of pure monologue around the two-thirds mark - something I don't think any other actor could have pulled off, at least not as enjoyably.
To be fair, rewatching this years on and I can see many faults: it goes on far too long; I was confused by the choreography a lot of the time (I'd forget peoples faces i.e. that the three soldiers at the end were on the original mission); the logic of a lot of Burton's actions defies logic (allowing himself to be captured is awfully risky). An awful lot of extras and bit players are killed very easily - knocking off Germans feels too simple.
But it's Where Eagles Dare - its beyond criticism. Pitt and Ure are fantastic heroines, and make you really scratch your head as to why they didn't try harder to get women into Ice Station Zebra. Patrick Wymark adds some great oily villainy - I've never forgotten the sweat on his top lip in his final scene, or his death. Derren Nesbitt's Gestapo Nazi is always enjoyable, and Donald Houston easily stands out among the traitors. And of course there's Burton, having the time of his life - at least, I like to think so.
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