Trivia / Where Eagles Dare

• The Danza: Mary Ure as Mary Elison.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Natural blonde Derren Nesbitt's hair is such an unusual shade because it had to be dyed twice. He was supposed to get it dyed back to blonde from another color (he often appeared with brown or black hair in films). But an accident with the process turned his hair green, forcing them to dye it again, turning it that unnatural-looking shade of platinum blonde.
• Enforced Method Acting: Holocaust survivor Ingrid Pitt found filming very difficult because many of the cast were wearing World War II German army uniforms.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The Austrian castle, Schloss Hohenwerfen, is the same castle that can be seen in the background in a scene from The Sound of Music when Maria and the kids are singing "Do Re Me".
• Money, Dear Boy:
  • Clint Eastwood was reluctant to receive second billing to Burton, but agreed after being paid $800,000.
  • A persistent tale is that Burton needed money to pay either the taxman or his bar tab, so MacLean wrote the screenplay over a weekend as a money-spinner. This isn't true, but is a good story.
• On-Set Injury: Derren Nesbitt was injured whilst filming his death scene. The blood squib attached to him exploded with such force that he was temporarily blinded, though he made a quick recovery.
• Production Nickname: Clint Eastwood nicknamed the film "Where Doubles Dared" due to the amount of screen time in which stand-ins doubled for the cast during action sequences.
• Self-Adaptation: Alistair MacLean wrote the script, thus adapting his own novel.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Specifically written by Alistair MacLean to give his mate Richard Burton a good old-fashioned adventure romp to show the kids, who wanted to see their dad in something that wasn't highbrow and where he didn't get killed.
• Stunt Double: Famed stuntman Alf Joint (Capungo in Goldfinger) was stand-in for Richard Burton, and performed the famous cable car jump sequence, during which he lost three teeth. Joint stated that at one point during production, Burton was so drunk that he knocked himself out while filming and Joint had to quickly fill in for him.
• Troubled Production: The production was delayed while filming due to the weather in Austria. Shooting took place in winter and early spring of 1968 and the crew had to contend with blizzards, sub-zero temperatures and potential avalanches. Further delays were incurred when Richard Burton, well known for his drinking habits, disappeared for several days with his friends Peter O'Toole, Trevor Howard and Richard Harris. According to Derren Nesbitt, Burton was drinking four bottles of voldka a day. At one point, Burton was threatened by a jealous husband with a gun in a bar, leaving Clint Eastwood and Elizabeth Taylor to deal with him. Nesbitt, when filming von Hapen's death scene, had to be rushed to the hospital after a squib malfunctioned and went off into his eyes, nearly blinding him.
• Wag the Director: Clint Eastwood refused to have his hair cut for his role. He initially opined that the script written by Alistair MacLean was "terrible" and was "all exposition and complications", and - according to Derren Nesbitt - requested that he be given less dialogue. Most of Schaffer's lines were given to Richard Burton, whilst Eastwood handled most of the action scenes.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Lee Marvin was offered the role of Schaffer, but he declined, telling the producers they were about four years too late. Marvin had already starred in a WW2 action-adventure, The Dirty Dozen, which he hated. Although it made him a huge star, he did not want to return to that type of movie.
  • Michael Caine claimed to have turned down the role of Major Smith. He would play the lead in a World War II commando film seven years later, The Eagle Has Landed — albeit as a German disguised as a Briton, the opposite of Smith.
• Working Title: Castle of Eagles.

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