Valley of Eagles

Interesting early work from director Terence Young who directed the first James Bond film Dr. No.

A scientist (John McCallum) in Norway invents a machine that converts sound-waves into electricity. The scientist initially thinks that his wife may have been kidnapped but his wife has conspired with his assistant to steal it and sell it to the Soviets. The inventor and a police officer pursue them in the icy wilderness of Lapland.

Anthony Dawson plays the treacherous assistant, he played a villain in Dr. No.

The film starts out as a cold war espionage thriller then becomes a survival film with bears, wolves and eagles. Yet with Jack Warner as Inspector Peterson who plays disbelieving policeman at first it becomes a police procedural until he joins the scientist in the hunt.

This is an unusual British B film for the time, it shifts focus too many times and by the end has lost the plot somewhat. It does not help that film has little tension and the leads are rather wooden.

Still it is worthwhile to spot early parts for the likes of Christoper Lee and see how the director's subsequent career was shaped.

I watch this by accident, wet Sunday waiting for a visitor. Yep plot weird, wife and lover soon forgotten, reason for chase soon lost, wooden performances...but...it was different.

The safari part watching the reindeer herding and their loss in the ravine, the the arrival of the hunting eagles it was interesting, no CGI, pre Gortex and some of the cast could actually ski.

The somewhat novel idea that people are not savages because they have different standards is interesting as is the acknowledgement of how near the brink people living traditional lives can be. The herd is lost so the herders must work for minimum wage in the logging camp to scrape together enough money to start another herd. The situation is the same now for many previously nomadic communities.

How many other films are set in Lapland and feature the Sami and their way of life?

Suspend your disbelief and watch it on a wet Sunday afternoon.

VALLEY OF EAGLES starts off as a typical and oh-so-British spy thriller, with a scientist inventing a new type of machine that will serve mankind. Before long his secrets are stolen after he's betrayed by his own wife and assistant, so he must give chase. Where the film differs from the ordinary thriller template is that the action shifts to the snowbound locales of Sweden and an outdoor adventure follows.

Be warned: if you're an animal lover, you'll probably hate this film. Adventures undertaken by the central characters include encounters with reindeer, wolves, and eagles, and plenty of the poor beasts are executed or killed by the time the credits roll. However, the stark black and white photography is a nice match for the icy backdrop, and the film looks great at least. There's even some not-bad avalanche footage achieved on what is obviously a low budget. Watch out for Christopher Lee's cameo as a detective.

The gist of this story is settled pretty quickly as a secret sonic device is pinched by "Sven" (Anthony Dawson) and "Helga" (Mary Laura Wood) the wife of it's inventor from their Stockholm home. Off they set across country, making for Finland and then the USSR. Hot on their tails are intrepid detective "Peterson" (Jack Warner) and the scientist "Ahlen" (John McCallum) who are both determined to stop them before they can sell the gadget to the Soviets. The espionage elements of this are all relatively plain sailing, but the photography of the Arctic wilderness as they give chase is what really makes this worth a gander. There are reindeer by the hundreds being herded by the locals; their lives free of technology and their innate friendliness meaning that these folks look after all comers. Just as that helps those pursuing, it helped those fleeing too. It all culminates in a pristine valley where the snow clings, precariously, to the sides of the mountains ensuring that the local population use only eagles to hunt - silence isn't so much golden as essential. Can the chasing pair catch up with their antagonists in time? Warner really only ever had one gear, and he doesn't challenge himself (or us) with his characterisation here. Dawson delivers competently as he usually does when he is the baddie, and the others contribute adequately, if maybe just a bit too verbosely, as the adventure slowly advances amidst the snow and ice to a denouement that is just a little different. It's nothing special, this film, but I thought the last ten minutes just about made it worth the watch - and, yes, there are a few eagles, too.

When Dr Nils Ahlen develops a device that can capture and utilise the energy of sound he naturally becomes the target of the government, be it in the energy field or weapons development. Having convinced his employers of his discovery, Ahlen returns to his home to get his full files only to find that his wife and his partner have gone missing – along with information vital to the development of the technology. With the help of the local police (Inspector Peterson), Ahlen sets out after the two to prevent them getting the information into the hands of the Russians.

In the opening ten minutes of this film things look good – the tone is dark, the wartime plot looks like it will produce a slick and exciting conspiracy/chase thriller and I must admit I settled down for a good "romp". However, not long into the chase the film decides to dump all this silly stuff and becomes some sort of wilderness adventure instead. At this point I tried to stay with the film but it became too stodgy and uninteresting for its own good and the melodrama of the whole affair failed to engage me. The script is pretty talky and, without character development, it didn't keep me with it; instead it throws in wolves and vultures and elements of "savage" life but not in such a way that is fun or entertaining in any sense of the word.

The cast can't do much with it and they come off pretty clunky and wooden. McCallum and Warner have the hardest jobs as they try to lead the film but, from their performances I can only assume that they were as unconvinced and as bored by the whole thing as I was. Dawson and Wood have potentially interesting characters and Wood does have some good scenes but the film doesn't help her by developing those around her to support her emotions within her marriage. The direction is OK but the stock footage is far too obvious and obtrusive.

Overall this starts out well but then becomes a plodding adventure story in the snowy wilderness; near the end it tries to look at the emotions of Ahlen's marriage briefly but it doesn't spend the time on it that that thread deserved. The end result showed potential but the majority of it is boring and flat and produced a film that is watchable at points but mostly not really worth a look.