International The Eagle Has Landed Special Edition (1 Viewer)

The Eagle Has Landed Special Edition with a running time of 145 minutes is now available in BluRay from Amazon UK. This is the full version of the movie not the shortened US version with a running time of 131 minutes. I own the Region 2 SD DVD Special Edition and the additional 14 minutes was well worth the double dip. Especially when you include the much improved video quality when comparing the PAL Anamorphic Widescreen (16 x 9) to the US letterbox 4 x 3. Now the BluRay will add to that when presented in 1080P/24.

I'm guessing the edition mentioned above is out of print. Could someone post a pic of the front and back covers for this extended version or give me more info. Carlton Visual Entertainment seems to be ITV now, as far as I can tell. The ITV disc out there now lists runtime as 118mins? I have the US Shout Blu-ray which runs at 131 mins, and was wondering if the extended version (145 mins) is worth getting, or if the additional footage is revelatory.

Dr Griffin said:

I'm guessing the edition mentioned above is out of print. Could someone post a pic of the front and back covers for this extended version or give me more info. Carlton Visual Entertainment seems to be ITV now, as far as I can tell. The ITV disc out there now lists runtime as 118mins? I have the US Shout Blu-ray which runs at 131 mins, and was wondering if the extended version (145 mins) is worth getting, or if the additional footage is revelatory.

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Here's a synopsis of the missing scenes from Wikipedia:

In 2004 Carlton Visual Entertainment released a two-disc PAL version which contains two versions of the film: the regular DVD version as well as an extended 145 minute version.[7] This 15 minutes longer version contains a number of scenes that had been deleted even before the European cinema release:[7]

• An alternative opening: originally the film was intended to start with Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasence) arriving at Schloss Hohenschwangau for a conference with Hitler, Canaris, Bormann and Goebbels. This deleted opening would have preceded the scenes under the opening credits which are a long aerial shot of a staff car leaving the castle in question. The deleted scene explains why Schloss Hohenschwangau appears in the credits but does not appear in the film.
• Extended scene when Radl arrives at Abwehr headquarters, he discusses his health with a German Army doctor (played by Ferdy Mayne).
• Scene at a Berlin University where Liam Devlin is a lecturer.
• Scene in Landsvoort where Steiner and von Neustadt discuss the mission and its merits and consequences.
• Devlin's arrival at Studley Constable is now extended where he and Joanna Grey discuss their part in the mission.
• Devlin drives his motorbike through the centre of the village and on to the cottage, where he inspects the barn before returning to the village.
• Scene where Devlin reads poetry to Molly Prior.
• Extended scene in which Molly interrupts Devlin shortly after he receives the army vehicles.
• Scene on the boat at the end that shows the fate of von Neustadt. (This scene is visible in one of the special edition DVDs extras, in the action photo gallery)

I love this movie and would love to have the full version but I'd think it's doubtful that we'll ever see it.The Shout Factory BD is probably the only release we'll see.

Dr Griffin said:

I'm guessing the edition mentioned above is out of print. Could someone post a pic of the front and back covers for this extended version or give me more info. Carlton Visual Entertainment seems to be ITV now, as far as I can tell. The ITV disc out there now lists runtime as 118mins? I have the US Shout Blu-ray which runs at 131 mins, and was wondering if the extended version (145 mins) is worth getting, or if the additional footage is revelatory.

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I have the ITV Blu-ray with the crappy cover art. It's been awhile since I watched it, but I believe the actual running time is 131 minutes, even though the case says 118. It's why I never bough the USA Blu-ray with the great cover art.

I could have sworn those extended scenes were part of the deleted scenes (or some other feature) on the Shout BD (deleted scenes aren't listed as a feature on the case though). They sound very familiar to me, and that Shout set is the only version I have. I take that back: I know I saw at least some of them including the different opening and ending, and the mission discussion and barn inspection (I was disliking how everything seemed so pat and pre set up with that in the theatrical, with no explanation). Anyway, FYI there's another thread here where we discuss the Shout disc, perhaps in the review section, as I recall posting in it.


I'll check the disc tonight, was planning to re-watch it the other day and got diverted... You are not going to get a lot of joy arguing for an extended release (only) here, more likely to encounter the grief when the theatrical version isn't the cut released on BD (especially if it was award-winning). At least having the cut scenes helps.

I believe these are the extras on the Shout BD (no deleted scenes):

The Eagle Has Landed Revisited: Invading Mapledurham (1080i; 15:06) is a really fun and interesting piece which visits the village where the film was shot and includes interviews with residents and surviving members of the film crew.
Tom Mankiewicz: Looking Back (1080i; 10:28) finds Mankiewicz (who sadly passed away in 2010) reminiscing on how he was assigned to write the picture and how he decided to adapt the best selling novel.
ATV Today on Location (1080i; 9:14) is a vintage featurette detailing the filming in Mapledurham.
Film Night Location Report (1080i; 5:16) is another vintage piece which includes interviews with John Sturges and Michael Caine.
On Location in Norfolk (1080i; 3:27) is yet another vintage featurette with Sturges.
On Location Interviews (1080i; 25:53) is a great compendium of vintage interviews with Caine, Sutherland and Sturges.
Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:00)

I agree that the theatrical cut seems to be missing some things that would add more texture to the story. I read that Caine said Sturges was just in it for the money and didn't even take part in the post-production process including the final cut. Although I love the film I found it to be somewhat of a missed opportunity.

The ITV Blu runs 2:15:24. Timing on the back is a misprint.

Yes, 135:34 on the Shout, including an ~10s ITV logo at the end, not a lot of time "wasted" on credits and logos for this presentation, the actual movie starts as soon as you press "play".


I saw the extended scenes elewhere (YouTube, a fan site?), they're definitely not embedded somewhere on the Shout disc like I suggested. I wish all BDs of films from this era +/- several years looked as good as this disc does. Even the (Shout) DVD is decent.

I have both blu-rays and they're about the same in length.

I also saw a deleted/extended scene (maybe not mentioned by atfree above, I don't remember the "poetry reading" specifically) that precedes Devlin/bike and Molly/horse meeting on the sand in the marsh. "What took you so long?" etc. that she said actually makes sense then, so does him knowing exactly where to find her, as does their relationship that in the theatrical version pops out of thin air.


In the theatrical, after Devlin's fistfight in the church cemetary, we instantly go to him with a barn full of German vehicles and a bunch of German-speaking (local) people. It seems obvious that intermediate expository scenes were cut; they were in the extended/deleted scenes too.


Note how unsurprised/unconcerned Devlin is when he first finds the body in his cottage. That makes more sense from the additional scenes.


There was also some explanation/expansion about the (final) scene with "Churchill". [Edit: now that I know how to do spoilers, I can finish:

This is my favorite aspect of the movie, and a cut part here made it over-clear "Spoiled" after almost 40 years?? JIC somebody reads this who hasn't seen it, it truly does kick the story, but not the movie as such.]


I know this all seems nitpicky, but there is a lot of detail in this movie right from the beginning (actual archival footage), intentionally so, so much it seems like it could be real. I/we notice when there are major story jumps when connecting details are missing!


I checked with somebody else, and we watched all these extended version scenes in the HT, which means they weren't on YouTube etc. (the way I do it here). I am extremely bugged I can't track the source down now, I hate "misplacing" stuff in general, it's almost always my fault because I was the last user...and now this'll subconsciously eat at me until I find this stuff too.