Where Eagles Dare | 1969
- Locations |
- Austria
- DIRECTOR |
- Brian G Hutton
Bluff, double bluff and multiple bluff in this enjoyable Alistair MacLean-scripted adventure which has Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood posing as Nazis to rescue military top brass from the impregnable ‘Schloss Adler’ in southern Germany.
The village railway station at which they arrive for their mission is Werfen, about 20 miles south of Salzburg in the Salzach Valley, Austria. There's little more than a main street, but the picturesque village is dominated by the breathtaking backdrop of Austrian Alps. There’s a direct regular rail connection from to Werfen from Salzburg.
The village itself, though, is Lofer, about 25 miles southwest of Salzburg, where part of the cable-car station was constructed.
The mountaintop fortress looming over the village is the 11th century Burg Hohenwerfen, above Werfen. It’s open to the public but, don’t worry. You won’t have to make a scary cable-car ride. In fact, there is no cable-car. The castle, now a falconry centre and museum, is accessible by a short, if steep, pathway from the village.
Some of the cable-car scenes were faked with a studio model, but the real aerial tramway seen in the film is the Feuerkogel Mountain lift, which has been operating since 1927, at Ebensee, at the southern tip of Traunsee in the Salzkammergut Mountains, over 30 miles east of Salzburg.
The village of Werfen is seen in perennial favourite The Sound of Music, while Burg Hohenwerfen itself recently turned up as the 'German’ hotel in the 2003 Ashton Kutcher-Brittany Murphy comedy Just Married.
• Many thanks to Wolfgang Laun and FZ for help with this section.
