The Guns of Navarone (1961)

A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.

Director:

J. Lee Thompson

Writers:

Alistair MacLean (novel) (as Alistair Maclean), Carl Foreman (written for the screen by)

Stars:

David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn

Won 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gregory Peck	...	Capt. Keith Mallory
David Niven	...	Cpl. John Anthony Miller
Anthony Quinn	...	Col. Andrea Stavros
Stanley Baker	...	CPO 'Butcher' Brown
Anthony Quayle	...	Maj. Roy Franklin
James Darren	...	Spyros Pappadimos
Irene Papas	...	Maria Pappadimos
Gia Scala	...	Anna
James Robertson Justice	...	Jensen / Prologue Narrator
Richard Harris	...	Squadron Leader Barnsby
Bryan Forbes	...	Cohn
Allan Cuthbertson	...	Maj. Baker
Michael Trubshawe	...	Weaver
Percy Herbert	...	Sgt. Grogan
George Mikell	...	Sessler

Storyline

In 1943, the British Navy is not able to rescue 2,000 soldiers trapped in the Island of Kheros since two powerful German cannons on the top of the Navarone Island are sinking the Allied vessels. After a failed aerial attack, the Allied command decide to send a six-man team disguised as fishermen to Navarone to blow-up the guns. The squad is commanded by Maj. Roy Franklin and composed by Capt. Keith Mallory, who is an experienced mountain climber, and his former partner Col. Andrea Stavros; the explosive expert Cpl. John Anthony Miller; the engineer CPO 'Butcher' Brown; and the Greek assassin Spyros Pappadimos, who was born in Navarone. They sail during the night and after an encounter with a German patrol boat and a storm in the sea, they arrive to Navarone and Capt. Mallory needs to climb a cliff face during a heavy rainy night to proceed their mission. Will they succeed?

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Plot Keywords:

firearm | artillery | man tied up | tied to chair | bound and gagged | 

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Taglines:

The Greatest High Adventure Ever Filmed!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | War

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

James Darren has fewer than ten lines of dialogue. His first line is "Watch out!" during the scene with Nicolai, the laundry boy.

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Goofs

In the briefing about the mission, Mallory is seen examining a photograph of the cliff on Navarone. The shot looking at the photo shows him holding it in his left hand, with a magnifying glass in his right. But in the shot immediately following, of Mallory at the table, he is holding a cigarette, not the magnifying glass, in his right hand.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Prologue Narrator: Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea have given birth to many myths and legends of war and adventure. And these once-proud stones, these ruined and shattered temples bear witness to the civilization that flourished and then died here and to the demigods and heroes who inspired those legends on this sea and these islands. But, though the stage is the same, ours is a legend of our own times, and its heroes are not demigods, but ordinary people. In 1943, so the story goes, 2000 ...

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: The first day 02.00 Hours An Allied Airfield somewhere in the Middle East

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Alternate Versions

Copies with different colour credits exists. The most common ones proclaiming "Eastmancolor by Pathé" while others says "Technicolor".

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Connections

Featured in Stars of the Silver Screen: David Niven (2014)

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Soundtracks

Das Sundenlied
(uncredited)
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Lyrics by Alfred Perry

User Reviews

The original Commando team movie...

"The Dirty Dozen" may have updated the film's premise for the cynical late '60's, but as much as I love that old hard-boiled film, even I have to admit that it doesn't hold a candle to "The Guns of Navarone". Though it may be hard to remember now that the premise has been used so much, the impossible mission theme was NOT a common staple in action films until this movie. The question of whether or not the team is going to pull it off is, for once, not as simple as many other simple-minded movies have made it. There are moments where the mission is endangered by just about everything imaginable: the CO being critically wounded, suspicious enemies, personality conflicts, wrenching moral dillemas, a traitor in the ranks, being captured by the enemy. The storyline plays out like the most extreme manifestation of Murphy's Law: everything that can go wrong DOES go wrong.

The team put together here couldn't be more incongruent with each other. Gregory Peck's world-class mountain climber who becomes the team's reluctant CO, David Niven's hot-tempered, authority-defying sapper, Anthony Quinn's Greek ex-Colonel who has promised to kill Peck at war's end, Stanley Baker's weary soldier who's tired of the unending slaughter, a young Greek national who wants more and more of it...the real miracle is that they manage to get as far and as well as they do. For every step forward, they wind up paying for it. Be it in blood, moral anguish, or pain, no one comes out of this mission unchanged or unscathed. I honestly feel that it is this theme of sacrifice that is the key to the greatness of "The Guns of Navarone".

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Greek German Latin

Release Date:

28 April 1961 (UK)

Also Known As:

Carl Foreman's Production The Guns of Navarone

Filming Locations:

Ile de Gorée, Dakar, Senegal

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Highroad Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

158 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System) (35 mm magnetic prints) 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) (Japan theatrical release) Mono (35 mm optical prints) Dolby (Restored version)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) Black and White (archive footage)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1