Finest hours: Derren Nesbitt as the hissable Nazi in Where Eagles Dare, “the least boring film ever made”

It takes chops to steal a film from Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. But Derren Nesbitt – who turns 90 on 19 June – did exactly that in Brian G. Hutton’s film of Alistair MacLean’s Where Eagles Dare (1968). And he was only on screen for a fraction of the epic’s 155-minute running time.

He had played Germans before, in The Blue Max (1965) and The Naked Runner (1967). But neither was as irredeemably hissable as Sturmbannführer von Hapen, who has the distinction of being the only figure to appear twice in Polish artist Piotr Uklañski’s 1998 photo-installation ‘The Nazis’, which compiled images of actors playing such roles. 

What makes Nesbitt’s performance all the more remarkable is the fact that the actor is Jewish. RADA-trained, he had made his mark as the blackmailing youth in Basil Dearden’s Victim (1961). He also did a nice line in sadistic crooks in The Man in the Back Seat (1961) and The Informers (1963), although he revealed a softer side in heist drama Strongroom (1962).

Von Hapen, however, doesn’t have a conscience. Almost 29 minutes elapse before he makes his entrance in the honour guard greeting Reichsmarschall Rosemeyer (Ferdy Mayne), who has come to the Alpine fortress Schloss Adler to interrogate a captured American general. However, the snap of his heel click and the fervour of his salute disquiet the visitor, who orders Waffen-SS Colonel Kramer (Anton Diffring) to keep Von Hapen out of the loop about the nature of his business. 

In just 10 seconds, Nesbitt has made it clear that the Gestapo man is going to prove problematic for Major John Smith (Burton) and Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Eastwood) in their bid to rescue the hostage before the Nazis discover he’s really a second-rate actor. But he fails to notice them when their paths cross in the village inn because he’s too busy turning on the charm to Mary (Mary Ure), while being unaware that she’s a British agent seeking admittance to the schloss. 

Having escorted Mary to the cable car, Von Hapen displays his sinister side in a seething spat with Kramer over his having not been informed of the capture of some enemy personnel. With both his suspicions and his ardour aroused, he treats Mary to some Bavarian hospitality, only to be unconvinced by her excuse for placing the cathedral on the wrong side of the square while reminiscing about her time in Düsseldorf.

Thus, having seen Mary back to her room, Von Hapen heads for the Great Hall. Brandishing a Luger, he demands to know what’s going on. But his contempt for his superiors causes him to half-believe Smith’s yarn about a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and his misjudgement proves fatal.

The heroes still have a fight on their hands, but that’s it for Von Hapen. Yet, in just six and a half minutes of screen time, Nesbitt had managed to make an indelible impression. He has exuded a menacing Nazi chic, as well as the arrogance that leads Von Hapen to enter the hall alone, without the back-up that would have enabled him to manage the situation with pitiless efficiency.

Nesbitt would go on to play an East German spy chief in Spy Story (1976) and a shady German uranium dealer in The Hot Potato (2012). But, following his 27-episode stint as DCI Jordan in the pioneering crime series Special Branch (1969 to 1970), he mostly found himself playing homegrown villains. Indeed, a case could be made that his finest hour came as the usurpative Number Two in the ‘It’s Your Funeral’ episode of The Prisoner (1967). However, he didn’t have a shock of peroxided curls, a fanatical gaze or a chest full of medals.

Nesbitt had told Hutton that the Gestapo had not worn black uniforms in 1942, only to be reassured that authenticity mattered less than looking beautiful. The costume certainly convinced the baron who owned the hotel where Nesbitt was staying, as he had a seizure on encountering the actor in full regalia in the middle of the night because he had once been Heinrich Himmler’s driver.

Five tunics were made for the picture and four were ruined by misfiring squibs while filming Von Hapen being shot in the chest on a Pinewood soundstage. Unfortunately, the final charge blew up in Nesbitt’s face and he was rushed to Denham Hospital with his eyes covered, his trousers soaked in fake blood, and a perfect bullet hole in his forehead. When his sight was restored two weeks later, he received a Fortnum & Mason fruit basket from Clint Eastwood, in the middle of which was a bottle of Optrex. 

Although he might not have gone out in the originally conceived bloody blaze of glory, Von Hapen remains the most memorable character in what Geoff Dyer – the author of the amusing monograph, Broadsword Calling Danny Boy – calls “the least boring film ever made”. 

Co-star Anton Diffring told Nesbitt, “You’re more German than I am!” But The Jewish Chronicle considered the role unsuitable for a Jewish actor. When the paper asked Nesbitt how he could play a German, however, he replied, “I do it because I play them very badly.”