Where Eagles Dare

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

10 corrected entries

(9 votes)

Correction: Watch the DVD carefully at 1:14:14. The German soldier walking the dog salutes first and Richard Burton returns the salute.

I agree with this correction. The soldier with the dog does salute first but it is very difficult to see because of the dark archway behind him.

Corrected entry: The SS colonel is talking to Maria about Düsseldorf and about which side of "ze zquare" the cathedral is located. There is no cathedral in Düsseldorf.

Correction: He knows this. He suspects Maria is a spy and is trying to catch her in a mistake.

Corrected entry: When Schaffer is creeping up behind the German radio operator in the castle in an attempt to stab him with the knife he's holding, his boot squeeks which in turn alerts the operator to his presence, resulting in him pushing the alarm button. Schaffer then shoots him with a pistol attached with a silencer. Rather than risk being heard, why didn't Schaffer shoot the operator as soon as he entered the room? No-one would have heard the shot because of the silencer.

Correction: The racket the radio music was making, he could have used a shotgun and nobody would have heard.

Correction: The scene is completely realistic. A silenced pistol still makes a loud 'sput' sound which can be audible for some distance, especially indoors. Killing the man with a knife is a far better option, but things just didn't work out that way .

Correction: It's the Major that shoots the radio operator while Schaffer tries to shut off the alarm. They blew it with this scene since Schaffer could have just shot him to begin with as he did the other guys in the mail room. That would have saved the alarm from sounding and given them more time to escape.

Corrected entry: Shortly after Schaffer has murdered the pilot of the helicopter in the radio room, Smith joins him and suggests they go and see how Cartwright-Jones is getting on. At this point his identity as Jones has not been revealed and he should have been referred to as General Carnaby.

Correction: No, Richard Burton told Clint Eastwood the whole plan while they were still in the tavern.

Corrected entry: Not only was Crete still occupied by the Germans when the movie takes place but General Carnaby can't have been going there or anywhere else for 'the rendezvous with the Russians' because the Allies never shared any information about the D-Day landings with the Russians for security reasons.

Greg McCreanor

Correction: That Russian is not important at all. The General carrying the plans was a plot to fool the Germans. So it could very well have happened.

Correction has some validity: If the cover story was a planned meeting in Crete, then when 'Carnaby' revealed that information under interrogation, that would raise German suspicions on the veracity of the whole plot as they would know Crete was under German control.

Correction: If the cover story was a planned meeting in Crete, then when 'Carnaby' revealed that information under interrogation, that would raise German suspicions on the veracity of the whole plot as they would know Crete was under German control.

Corrected entry: When Smith and Shaffer get in the car accident in the German car, they push it over the cliff. They start pushing it without changing the gears. The car would have been in gear before hitting the pile of rubble and would need to be put in neutral to be pushed.

Jacob La Cour

Correction: The impact could easily have have knocked the transmission into neutral. I've had this happen myself when driving a manual transmission and hitting a particularly large pothole.

Corrected entry: In order to get the two stars of the film (Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood) to sign up, the film's producers had to use a little trickery. They told Burton that Eastwood had already signed up and told Eastwood that Burton had already signed up, when in fact neither of them had yet. The plan worked however, because Eastwood was keen to work with Burton, the classy British stage actor, and Burton wanted to work with Eastwood, the big Hollywood action star. Had one of them turned the role down however, the producers would have lost both the leading actors.

Correction: The driving force behind the film was Richard Burton's stepson, who wanted to see his stepfather in a good old-fashioned adventure movie. Burton approached producer Elliott Kastner for ideas, who asked Alistair MacLean. At that time, most of MacLean's novels had either been made into films, or were in the process of being filmed. Kastner persuaded MacLean to write a new story. Six weeks later, MacLean delivered the script.

Corrected entry: When Schaffer starts to rappel down the castle, he has no gloves on. The very next shot shows him with grey wool gloves, then no gloves again when he reaches the bottom.

Correction: I've just watched the film and Schaffer wears the grey gloves all the way down. If you look closely (just before he goes out of the window), he rummages in his pockets for the gloves and puts them on.

Corrected entry: When the heroes have jumped off the cable car into the water, they climb out and run for cover. As they are running they pass a large window and you can clearly see the camera crew reflected in it.

Correction: I've just watched the film. Once out of the water, "our heroes" are seen (briefly) from above and then from behind. At no point do they pass a large window.

Corrected entry: Just before they all jump out of the cable car, Smith takes two lit light bulbs out of the ceiling of the cable car with his bare hands. In real life, his hands would have been burned.

Correction: These bulbs will certainly be lower power than your average house light and will be less hot. Plus his life is at risk and burned hands seem a small price to pay to remain alive.

tw_stuart

Continuity mistake: When the team are about to jump from the cable car into the river, the view from ground level shows a bare road with no snow on it on the right and a line of trees on the left with German trucks parked next to them, but the view from the cable car shows a snow-covered road and no trucks beside the trees. (02:06:00)

Greg McCreanor

More mistakes in Where Eagles Dare

Major John Smith: Lieutenant, in the next 15 minutes we have to create enough confusion to get out of here alive.
Lt. Morris Schaffer: Major, right now you got me about as confused as I ever hope to be.

More quotes from Where Eagles Dare

Trivia: When Mary goes undercover in the castle, her name is Maria Schenck. They are the middle names of Col Stauffenberg, the German officer played by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie, who tried to kill Hitler.

More trivia for Where Eagles Dare

Chosen answer: This is not unusual in older films. Earlier costume designers were less attentive to historical accuracy and freely incorporated current fashion trends into period movies. It was just an accepted practice and movie audiences back then were often less discerning and/or unaware of inaccuracies. Today's costumers have greater access to historical information, do more research, and strive for authenticity.

raywest

More questions & answers from Where Eagles Dare

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