Posted on 08/21/2014 7:08:48 AM PDT by Borges
Brian G. Hutton, who directed Clint Eastwood in the WWII actioners “Where Eagles Dare” (1968) and “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970) and also directed Elizabeth Taylor in two films, has died. He was 79.
“Where Eagles Dare,” a thriller based on the Alistair MacLean novel, also starred Richard Burton, while “Kelly Heroes,” a heist film masquerading as a war film, sported a large ensemble cast that included Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O’Connor and Donald Sutherland.
Hutton’s 1972 drama “X, Y and Zee” starred Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine and Susannah York concerned an an architect, his mistress, and the wife intent on breaking them at all costs. Follow-up film “Night Watch,” starring Taylor and Laurence Harvey, was a thriller.
Hutton did not direct again until 1980’s Lawrence Sanders adaptation “The First Deadly Sin,” starring Frank Sinatra as a New York police detective and Faye Dunaway his dying wife.
His final directorial effort was the 1983 adventure romance “High Road to China,” starring Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong.
Hutton made his feature directorial debut with 1965’s “Wild Seed,” a sensitive romantic drama. The following year he helmed “The Pad and How to Use It,” a comedy based on a play by Peter Shaffer.
While Hutton directed nine films, he actually spent more of his career as an actor. He appeared in the John Sturges Westerns “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and “Last Train From Gun Hill,” starring Douglas; the Roger Corman movie “Carnival Rock”; Elvis Presley pic “King Creole”; the 1958 crime drama “The Case Against Brooklyn,” starring Darren McGavin; and Frank Borzage’s “The Big Fisherman.”
Hutton also guested on a number of Western-themed TV series including “Gunsmoke,” “Have Gun — Will Travel,” “Rawhide,” “Wagon Train,” as well as on “Playhouse 90″ and “Perry Mason,” among other shows.
Hutton was born in New York City, and in addition to his own acting and directing, he also ran an acting class at the he ran the Beverly Hills Playhouse. In the mid-’80s he left showbiz for a career in real estate.
Why don't you knock it off with them Negative Waves Moriarity!
WHERE EAGLES DARE is fun but, being a former tanker, KELLY’S HEROES is always a hoot to watch. i really like HIGH ROAD TO CHINA, have the movie score but haven’t found it on dvd in the US.
Wow, I just (re)watched Kelly’s hero’s last night!
“Get back in your hole!”
“We see our role as essentially defensive in nature. While our armies are advancing so fast and everyone’s knocking themselves out to be heroes, we are holding ourselves in reserve in case the Krauts mount a counteroffensive which threatens Paris... or maybe even New York. Then we can move in and stop them. But for 1.6 million dollars, we could become heroes for three days.”
When I was in eighth grade, he took me to Where Eagles Dare.
Telly was GREAT in that movie...
“Oddball? He’s a freak!!!!”
“Does Oddball know about the Tigers?”
“No.”
“You damned right he doesn’t know about the Tigers!”
I always thought “Where Eagles Dare” was something of a ripoff of a true story only the Germans were the guys doing the amazing deeds.
Otto Skorzeny who founded “The Odessa”, the real one, was the leader of the rescue mission.
First time I saw Where Eagles Dare was in college in the student union on a big screen in 16mm (hearing the clicking of the reel the whole time). What a great movie though!
Well the film was based on the Alistair MacLean novel.
They were aping ‘The Dirty Dozen’ where Sutherland played a similar character. You have to admire a film that casts Clint Eastwood opposite Richard Burton! The most intense violence in it was the clash of acting styles.
Oddball was a piece of work, wasn't he?
“Oddball, what are you doing!?”
“Eating a little cheese, having a little wine,... Oh, I just drive them, I don’t know what makes them work.”
Or something to that affect. One of my favorite lines of all time.
"Oddball" is sort of a beatnik-hippie hybrid, which I guess someone figured would be required to sell a WWII movie in 1970. It's also a deliberate jab at the traditional war movie audience, which is in keeping with the overall irreverance of the film.
Kelly's Heroes is kind of like the spaghetti western of A-list war movies. Just think of that scene when they enter the bank:
Kelly throws aside the tarp, revealing a pile of wooden boxes. Then he picks up a box as all the men watch and he slams the box open. Out falls the gold. The crash of the box and then a silence. And then La Marseillaise booms from a trumpet, with close, confused shots of a matching band. Then it cuts to gritty close-ups of the principle characters: Kelly, Oddball (barking manically), the Nazi tank commander (registering excitement with a stoic German flicker of his eye), Oddball’s mechanic and Big Joe. Then the camera pans across the excited faces of the bit part actors. Across their faces gleams the reflected aura of the gold. If that wasn't intentionally a hat-tip to the style of Sergio Leone, it sure looked that way.
It's interesting that this same man directed Kelly's Heroes and Where Eagles Dare. Two great films, but as different in tone as possible.
“That’s my other dog.”
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