The Eagle Has Landed

The Eagle Has Landed (1976) is John Sturges' World War II thriller you can watch online on iFILM. In the autumn of 1943, German intelligence learns that Churchill plans to spend a quiet weekend at a country house in Norfolk.

That stray piece of news becomes an audacious scheme: snatch the British prime minister and ship him back to Germany. The job falls to Colonel Kurt Steiner and his disgraced paratroopers, with help on the English coast from Liam Devlin, an Irishman nursing his own grudge against London. The commandos land disguised as Polish troops and quietly take over a sleepy village, until one rash act of courage threatens to unravel everything. Michael Caine plays Steiner, Donald Sutherland is Devlin, and Robert Duvall is the colonel who dreamed the operation up.

Adapted from Jack Higgins' bestselling novel, this was the final film from Sturges, the director behind The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. What sets it apart is where its sympathies sit: Steiner is written as a soldier of conscience rather than a cardboard villain, which keeps you oddly unsure who to root for. Solid, old-fashioned adventure for anyone who loves a behind-enemy-lines mission. Stream The Eagle Has Landed online on iFILM.