The cable-car fight is the beating heart of Where Eagles Dare—an extended sequence of vertigo, violence, and ingenuity that tested every department. The idea was pure Alistair MacLean: an impossible duel suspended thousands of feet above an Alpine gorge. Filming it safely was another matter.
The first attempt, in the Austrian town of Ebensee, quickly proved unworkable. The cars passed too fast and too high for real stunts, and unpredictable mountain winds made camera work impossible. Veteran coordinator Yakima Canutt inspected the site with stuntman Alf Joint, who bluntly told him, “You can’t do that jump—it’d kill a man.” Canutt agreed, and the main sequence was later recreated at MGM Boreham Wood on a full-scale replica.
The production built two cable cars over a vast water tank, complete with miniature pine trees and a model station. Cameras mounted on balancing platforms gave the illusion of motion while remaining safe for actors.
“Richard Burton had vertigo,” Hutton admitted. “He wouldn’t get up on anything. We had to lash him to a crane and lift him ten feet so it looked like he was climbing.”
For long shots, Alf Joint doubled him so convincingly that even editors sometimes could not tell the difference. Eastwood’s double, Eddie Powell, performed the opposing stunts, their movements timed to within seconds.
Accidents were inevitable. During one take, a camera plunged into the ravine; in another, a dummy meant to represent a falling German soldier snapped free and vanished into the valley below. Yet the results were breathtaking.
Cinematographer Arthur Ibbetson shot much of the action against front-projection backdrops—technology developed for 2001: A Space Odyssey—to blend real and simulated footage.
The sequence’s realism impressed even jaded studio heads. When preview audiences gasped, Canutt told them proudly, “That’s all ropes, sweat, and courage.”
The scene became a masterclass in pre-digital spectacle: every punch, fall, and camera wobble carefully calculated to feel dangerously spontaneous. Half a century later, filmmakers still study the cable-car fight as a template for analog action.
It remains proof that craft, timing, and nerve can outmatch computer effects—and that, sometimes, the eagles really did dare.
Sources
- – The Making of Where Eagles Dare, feature article, 1996.
- – Yakima Canutt, Stunt Man (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980).
- – Alf Joint interview, Cinema Retro, Issue 9 (2007).
- – BFI Special Collections, “Visual Effects and Front Projection,” 1968.
- – Variety, 12 June 1968, “Eagles Dare Cable Car Stunts Thrill Preview Crowd.”