Cinema Retro magazine

 Cinema Retro magazine are known for their special editions dedicated to the making of cult classics. Their behind the scenes edition into the 1968 filming of Where Eagles Dare and its legacy was so popular they reprinted it with an expanded deluxe issue. Among the minutiae of the making of this revered WWII action classic was the revelation that the legendary Richard Burton was frequently out of action due to his drinking.

Clint Eastwood found himself working so much with Alf Joint, Burton’s stunt double, that he remarked that film should be retitled “Where Doubles Dare.” To be fair to Burton, a lot of this was due to the filming of scenes too athletic for Burton, such as running or climbing. As it happened, only Eastwood was involved in the location shooting of the final climactic bus chase to the airfield. Closeups while setting explosives under a bridge were shot as interior scenes later with back projection scenery. But Burton’s drinking was known to be especially problematic in the later stages back in England when all the interior scenes were shot at Borehamwood Studios (long demolished and now a housing estate).

Key grip Dennis Fraser said, “Eastwood respected everybody. There was no pretension about him. But by the end of the film he just wanted to get away - and Burton was playing up and that delayed him. He was quite pissed off about that. We’d have a lot of elaborate things set up for a shot and then all of a sudden we’d get word that Burton was too drunk to film.”