During WW2, an American POW is used as a test subject by German Schutzstaffel scientists. He's kept in an induced dream-state to ensure he'll remain unaware of his participation in a number of bizarre and highly covert experiments merging science with the supernatural. He latterly returns to the States, spending the next three decades teaching at a university, and being plagued by nightmares of past experiences he can't consciously recall. The aforementioned Nazi scientists, now eluding arrest for wartime atrocities, locate and abduct him to their hideout in South America. It is here that an occult ritual is scheduled to take place, during which our protagonist's preconditioned body will serve as the vessel needed to host the damned soul of Adolph Hitler. If successful, this event will reinstate Der Fuhrer's leadership, marking the inception of The Fourth Reich...and possibly a grim fate for all mankind.
This near-lost obscurity has some intriguing and quite chilling ideas in play. It's handled relatively well under what was most assuredly a very restrictive budget, with a competent cast and a few interesting filming locations. These niceties, however, do little to camouflage the glaring hallmarks of a second-string production. The culminating orphic ceremony, in particular, is downright cheesy, coming off somewhat like an elaborate Ivy League frat hazing ritual, replete with loincloth-attired identical twins, and more flickering candles than a KUNG-FU flashback. No big Hollywood names are involved, but a few faces are recognizable from smaller roles in more noted projects.
The poorly understood association of the Nazis with occult mysticism is intriguing, but TIME OF THE EAGLE is ultimately a film far better in concept than composition. Even so, it deserves better than the complete oblivion to which it's presently relegated, with nary a footnote in the chronicles of horror cinema attesting to the fact that it was ever made.
5/10.
