The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

In 1943, the Nazis hatch a plot to kidnap Winston Churchill and bring him to Germany. To this end, the task is assigned to a German Colonel (Robert Duvall), who recruits an Irishman (Donald Sutherland) who is a member of the IRA and a German paratrooper (Michael Caine) to execute the plan and they are smuggled into England along with a small contingent of men. Based on the best selling novel by Jack Higgins, the movie manages to whip up an amazing amount of suspense considering we already know the story's outcome ... the mission was a failure since Churchill was never kidnapped. The suspense comes from the interaction of the Germans (posing as free Polish army) with the Brits in the small coastal village and how close their plan will come to fruition as well as how they will be caught. The director John Sturges (whose final film this was) worked in the genre before with his THE GREAT ESCAPE and brings his assured hand to the project though he can't save the film's final half hour, the film runs well over the two hour mark. The film loses steam and becomes a rather conventional WWII actioner. But until it goes flat, it's an engrossing solid piece of action cinema. Lalo Schifrin does a nice job of scoring. With Donald Pleasence, Treat Williams, Jenny Agutter, Anthony Quayle, Judy Geeson, Sven Bertil Taube, John Standing and two notable performances but for two different reasons: Jean Marsh as a Nazi mole in the film's best performance and in the film's worst performance, Larry Hagman as an inept American Colonel whose cartoonish caricature is out of step with the naturalistic performances of the rest of the cast.