This movie really is an oddity - as others have noted its hard to see it being made now and it was pretty odd to see it being made then. However, I'd encourage folk to watch it as its an old-fashioned yarn featuring some splendid cameos from a strong cast of supporting actors. As for the stars - well Messrs Niven, Peck and Moore aren't perhaps stretched too much but they do enough to show just why they were the stars. I think its called 'screen presence'. Peck's accent - a plucky effort and far from the worst I've heard.
A few minor points Why was the film made? Am I alone in suspecting that the director had a key role? Andy McLaglen had a penchant for casting favourite actors (a John Ford influence) and a scenario like this with ample opportunity to cast screen veterans would have appealed. He was also the son of the redoubtable Anglo-Irish actor Victor McLagan, an old soldier who (as you'll find elsewhere on IMDb)in the 1930s organised a semi-militaristic polo club called the 'Light Horse Brigade'. A coincidence - surely not, it must have appealed to McLaglen to publicise the story of another 'Light Horse' that did get to 'do its bit'.
On the German resistance. These were not crack Nazi stormtroopers - they were mainly merchant sailors (tho some would have had naval experience). They were also taken by surprise in a neutral port where they were happily sitting out the duration. Given those circumstances they put up a rather good fight in the film - and its to be noted four German survivors of the raid were advisers on the movie.
On people being shot in the arm. Were they supposed to invent extra British characters so they could kill them? On the whiskey - its the men's cover if the raid went off half-cocked as was quite possible.
On the dedication - Mountbatten was the wartime commander in the area of operations including the Indian Ocean. Being made so soon after his murder it must have appealed to McLaglen (British-born of Protestant Irish stock) to remind the viewers again that not all old soldiers get to live out their retirement peacefully. We should also recall the two teenage boys (one of them local) and the 83-year old woman killed along with Mountbatten in that terrorist atrocity.
Finally, I like the closing moments when the men are gazing at the burning ships. No champagne, no cheers, no high fives - just a comment of 'poor devils'.
