My Life as a Mankiewicz by Tom Mankiewicz

Author:Tom Mankiewicz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky

The Eagle Has Landed

The Eagle Has Landed was a big bestseller by Jack Higgins. It was going to be a Paramount movie. Lew Grade was the executive producer. It was produced by a guy named Jack Wiener, very bright, smart, and British. His partner was David Niven Jr., who's the most charming guy in the world but knows absolutely nothing about producing movies. He was just hanging on. And I did the screenplay. I was so excited because they got John Sturges to direct it. Bad Day at Black Rock. The Magnificent Seven. The Great Escape. I met with him. He had a patch over one eye. A tough old guy. He liked the script a lot. It was about a plot to kidnap Churchill in World War II. The best part was the undercover IRA agent, which Donald Sutherland played. We offered that part to Michael Caine. Michael called me and said, “Listen, I love the script. I'd like to be in this movie.” He said, “I'm forty-two years old. I had my first child only four years ago. I'm happily married. I don't want to play an IRA agent. There are so many crazy people, and if they think I'm playing it wrong or somebody takes offence…”

I said, “It was in the Second World War.”

He said, “But still, it's the IRA. On the other hand, I'd love to play the German colonel.”

I said, “I'm sure we'd love for you to do it. Let me talk to John Sturges.”

Michael said, “Isn't it amazing? Here we are only thirty years after the Second World War, and a British actor would rather play a Nazi colonel than an Irishman.”

So he played the colonel. Donald Sutherland said, “What are they going to do to me? I'm fuckin' Canadian!” So Donald played the IRA agent.

There were some wonderful actors: Robert Duvall; Judy Geeson; that terrific woman from Upstairs, Downstairs, Jean Marsh; Larry Hagman. It was, in many ways, easily the best script I'd ever written. But John Sturges, for some reason, had given up. Michael said on the set, sometimes, if he was behind, he would say, “We don't have to shoot that scene.” This was a heartbreak for me. It's my cousin Ben Mankiewicz's favorite movie, and it gets a great review in Leonard Maltin's book, another Mother, Jugs & Speed. My new favorite critic. But there were scenes missing. I wasn't there for most of the shooting. I was just there for the beginning, and everything was fine and everybody was happy. Donald and Michael were wonderful. But when it was over, John Sturges didn't even edit it. He got on a boat and went to the Mediterranean.

The picture is as good as it is because Anne V. Coates was our editor. She edited Lawrence of Arabia. She was David Lean's editor. I didn't know her. She was screening a rough cut for some executives in a big theater. I was invited. Rough cuts are always difficult. Francis Coppola said, “No movie is ever as good as the rushes or as bad as the rough cut.

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