The Guns of Navarone was a fine war movie with an all-star cast and a gripping plot based on the Alistair MacLean novel. A commando team is sent to a Greek Island to destroy the giant Nazi guns that are controlling a strategic channel in the Aegean Sea. This was a groundbreaker in the Special Effects department.
Although Gregory Peck had been a successful and popular actor for nearly two decades, the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone would become his most financially successful film until The Omen fifteen years later.
Leslie Halliwell called it ‘ambitiously produced Boy’s Own Paper heroics, with lots of noise and self-sacrifice.’
Golden Globes for Best Original Score; Best Motion Picture, Drama.
Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture; Best Director; Best (Adapted) Screenplay.
production details
USA – UK | Columbia | 158 minutes | 1961
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Script: Carl Foreman, Alistair MacLean,
cast
Tutte Lemkow as Nicolai
William Hoehne Jr. as German Officer on Navarone
James Robertson Justice as Commodore Jensen / Prologue Narrator
Percy Herbert as Sgt. Grogan
George Mikell as SS Hauptman Sessler
David Niven as Cpl. Miller
Victor Buono as Greek Cleric at Wedding Plaza
Allan Cuthbertson as Maj. Baker
Stanley Baker as Pvt. ‘Butcher’ Brown
Bryan Forbes as Cohn
Gregory Peck as Capt. Keith Mallory
Anthony Quinn as Col. Andrea Stavros
Anthony Quayle as Maj. Roy Franklin
James Darren as Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos
Irene Papas as Maria Pappadimos
Gia Scala as Anna
Richard Harris as Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby RAAF
Michael Trubshawe as Weaver
Walter Gotell as Muesel
Albert Lieven as Commandant
Norman Wooland as Group Captain
Kleo Skouloudi as Bride
Nicholas Papakonstantinou as Patrol Boat Captain
Christopher Rhodes as German Gunnery Officer