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.
Like the original M*A*S*H movie with the marijuana references during the football game.
Broadsword calling Danny boy. Richard Burton. When I was stationed in Germany, I got to see the real castle where they filmed the movie. It was actually in Austria. In the movie, it appeared the castle was many thousands of feet above the valley floor. In actuality, it was maybe only about one hundred feet above it.
In 1970 the film ‘Patton’ was sold as a story of a ‘Rebel’ who ‘defied authority at every turn’. That’s how it had such a wide appeal.
There is no other movie ever made that I have watched a fraction of the number of times I have watched Kelly's Heroes. My wife is still amazed how my head flops to one side, my jaw goes slack and my ears can't hear a word she says every time I find it while channel surfing.
It’s amusing to think that Carol O’Connor was being shuffled back to the U.S. at the time to film multiple pilots for ‘All in the Family’ which he didn’t think would go anywhere and insisted on a free plane ride back.
A Sherman can give you a nice edge.
There was nothing of enough value to soldiers in the North or South of Vietnam to risk desertion charges. The French beat us to it long before WWII started.
Big Joe: What kind of deal?
Crapgame: A DEAL, deal! Maybe the guy's a Republican. "Business is business," right?
One of the best movies ever made. Oddball stole that movie.
You didn’t say nothing about locking horns with tigers.
Where Eagles Dare opening theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XKGhG0W0LQ&t=0m44s
Monty Python and the Holy Grail opening theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHDycUXzNs0&t=1m28s
The castle has a website.
Had the hanging tram cars been replaced with the inclined-rail type when you visited?
RIP.
Yes, but a simple plot device to claim there was a cache of gold that the French left behind.
Kelly's Heroes was certainly a spirited entertainment. I know I come off like a guy who is too much a stickler for realism. Generally, I'm not. But every now and then, some little thing like the incongruousness of Oddball irks me. I don't mind if a western like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly shows repeating weapons a few years earlier than when they made their appearance, but am more annoyed when a western like The Comancheros shows repeating weapons in a film set in 1843. Seems like they could have simply changed the year of The Comancheros. I can still enjoy all those films (including Kelly's Heroes), but those niggling little annoyances make them a sort of curate's egg for me.
Don Rickles and Telly Savalas I presume?
It was back in the 80s, so it has been a long time. I actually saw it a couple of times, but it was from a bus on a nearby highway, while going to the ski slopes, so we only got a quick view of it as we passed by. It was so quick, that I don't recall whether I saw any tram at all, but at least I can say I saw the castle, but we did not stop.
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