Clint Eastwood called this wartime adventure "Where Doubles Dare", in view of the army of stuntmen who performed the acrobatics in the Austrian Alps. His co-star, Richard Burton, was paid a million dollars plus a big percentage of what turned out to be a hugely profitable picture. It's the usual espionage hokum, with Burton and Eastwood infiltrating a Nazi stronghold to discover a hornets' nest of spies. There are so many double- and triple-crosses that the plot is at times incomprehensible. But this is a picture about big bangs, James Bond-style fights on cable cars and body counts. It's hilarious and exciting, often at the same time. Interestingly, this was written as an original script for Burton by Alistair MacLean, who then expanded the idea into a bestselling novel.

World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.