The Eagle Has Landed (Special Edition) [DVD]

The Eagle Has Landed is John Sturges’ film adaptation of Jack Higgins’ best-selling suspense novel of the same name. Features on this special edition DVD include: a theatrical trailer; interviews with Michael Caine and Donald Sutherland; a director’s interview; location reports; plus 17 minutes of deleted scenes.

When the Nazi high command learns in late 1943 that Winston Churchill will be spending time at a country estate in Norfolk, it hatches an audacious scheme to kidnap the Prime Minister and spirit him to Germany for enforced negotiations with Der Fuhrer. Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasence) assigns Colonel Max Radl (Robert Duvall) to mastermind the operation. He also enlists the aid of Colonel Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine)–who has been imprisoned for subordination and is awaiting sentence–by offering him a chance to save his life; Liam Devlin (Donald Sutherland), an IRA lifer who hates the British, also signs on for the mission. Steiner and his commando team parachute into the small village of Sudley–disguised as Polish soldiers–and appear to the populace to be para-troopers running through exercises. As they await the arrival of Churchill, one of the commandos rescues a boy from drowning in a nearby river, inadvertently revealing his Nazi colours in the process. The Eagle Has Landed is an enjoyable Alistair MacLean-like “Mission Impossible”, ably served by Sturges and a stellar cast.