The Guns of Navarone

The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 action adventure war film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, based on Alistair MacLean‘s 1957 novel. Foreman also produced the film. The film stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, Richard Harris and James Darren. The book and the film share a plot: the efforts of an Allied commando unit to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea.

Plot

In 1943, the Axis powers plan an assault on the island of Kheros, where 2,000 British soldiers are marooned, to display their military strength and convince neutral Turkey to join them. Rescue by the Royal Navy is prevented by two enormous radar-directed large-calibre guns on (fictional) Navarone Island. When aerial bombing efforts fail, Allied Intelligence gathers a commando unit to infiltrate Navarone and destroy the guns. Led by Major Roy Franklin, the team is composed of Captain Keith Mallory, a spy and an officer with the Long Range Desert Group; Colonel Andrea Stavros from the Greek Army; Franklin’s friend Corporal Miller, an explosives expert and chemistry professor; Greco-American Spyros Pappadimos, a native of Navarone; and “The Butcher of Barcelona” Brown, an engineer and knife fighter.