CONSENSUS #41. Guns of Navarone (1961)

SYNOPSIS:  “The Guns of Navarone” is a WWII action/adventure based on the novel by Alistair MacLean.  A commando team of various talents is sent to a German controlled island to destroy two enormous artillery pieces that control the nearby sea and would prevent a British fleet from passing by.  They have to overcome obstacles like climbing a cliff in a rainstorm, a traitor in their midst, and getting into the well-defended emplacement.  The cast is led by Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, David Niven, and Anthony Quayle.

BACKSTORY:  “The Guns of Navarone” was released in 1961 and was the top box office attraction of that year. It is based on the popular novel (1957) by Alistair MacLean, although the characters underwent major changes by screenwriter Carl Foreman ( for instance, there are no major female characters in the book ). At $6 million, the film was one of the most expensive up to that time. It paid off as the movie was a smash hit and critically acclaimed. It served as a template for the James Bond series with its mixture of action, characters, and exotic locale. It is often linked with similar movies from that time period, specifically with “Bridge on the River Kwai”, “The Longest Day”, and “The Great Escape”. It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and won for Best Special Effects. It was awarded the Golden Globe for Drama. One of the Oscar nods went to Foreman for his first credited screenplay since being blacklisted as a Communist. The movie was filmed mostly on the island of Rhodes which hosted an all-star cast. One of whom, David Niven, almost died during filming because of immersion in a pool of water for the explosives on the elevator shaft scene.

TRIVIA:  Wikipedia, imdb, TCM, Cinema Retro

1.  The original director was Alexander MacKendrick.  He was fired (officially he was ill) by producer Carl Foreman for creative differences.  Foreman had set himself up as second unit director and was very protective of his script.  He also felt MacKendrick was not up to his standards.  Foreman also found fault with the script written by thriller writer Eric Ambler and decided to write it himself.  Foreman, a communist sympathizer, had been blacklisted in the U.S. during the Korean War.  Although he had dropped out of the Communist Party ten years earlier, he refused to name names before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. After finishing “High Noon”, he had relocated to England.

2.  Director J. Lee Thompson had had a great success with “Ice Cold in Alex”.  He later went on to direct “John Goldfarb, Please Come Home”.  He was known for frequent rehearsing.  The movie uses a lot of painted mattes for effects and rear projection.  Most of the shots of the boat are models.  The cliff scene was done on the floor of the studio with the actors lying down for the scaling.

3.  The Greek government provided a thousand troops, dozens of vehicles, and a number of ships.  Foreman was given access to all historical sites.  The cooperation soured after Thompson accidentally sank the ship in the scene where their boat is stopped by a German patrol ship.  Members of the royal family appear in the wedding banquet scene.

4.  The shipwreck scene was done in the studio tank using airplane engines that had water from fire hoses sprayed into them.  It took 10 days.  The tidal wave was an effect.  Peck suffered a deep gash on his head and was nearly crushed by the hydraulics.  Quinn injured his back.  Niven reopened an old war wound.  Darren nearly drowned.

5.  Peck was chosen after William Holden asked for too much and did not want to star because he felt the movie was too much like “Bridge on the River Kwai”.  Peck liked the anti-war theme because he was a confirmed pacifist who had not supported U.S. intervention in WWII until Operation Barbarossa.  He refused to do an English accent so the character was changed to American. He later admitted he was miscast.  His German was dubbed.  He was hoping to revive a career that was beginning to skid.

6.  Anthony Quinn loved the Rhodes location shoot so much he bought land in the area that is still called Anthony Quin Bay.  He and Peck did not get along at first, but bonded over chess (which Quinn was very good at).  He angered the cast by wearing the vibrant red t-shirt under his uniform and then using its uncovering to steal eyeballs in the climactic scenes.

7.  David Niven felt his role was underwritten and pouted a bit about it.  This movie was the only one that the anti-smoking Brit smoked in. Niven returned to the British Army at the start of the war.  He was the only British actor to return to serve in the war.  He was assigned to a commando unit, but did not like to talk about his experiences.  He suffered a serious viral infection shooting the rigging the rigging the elevator scene because the water was polluted.  He came close to dying and was hospitalized for several weeks.  The movie was in jeopardy until he returned.

8.  Anthony Quayle was a Major organizing guerrilla forces in Albania during WWII.

9.  Bobby Darren was hoping to change his teen idol image, but his next movie was the sequel to “Gidget” in which he played Moondoggie.  He had only ten lines of dialogue.

10.  Stanley Baker was a big star in England, but was not high on the movie’s totem pole.  He was bitter throughout the filming.

11.  Gia Scala (Anna) was a head-case and difficult to work with (she later committed suicide).  She was upset with director Thompson for having her character with short hair.  When given the opportunity to cut Foreman’s hair, she gouged the back of it.

 12.  Dimitri Tiomkin got a record $50,000 and a percent of the profits.  The score was the longest ever at 147 minutes.

13.  The guns were built by an armaments company and were functional.  The guns were based on Big Bertha.  The guns set was the largest ever built. It took five months.  It was three stories high and had and working elevator.

14.  The number of times Barnsby (Richard Harris) says “bloody” in his rant about aerial bombing of the guns – 9.  The British censor insisted it be redubbed “ruddy” for British prints.

 15.  *** Spoiler Alert:  Foreman made substantial changes to the novel.  He added the Pappadimos character.  He added the leadership dysfunction between Mallory and Miller.  He added the revenge issue for Stavros with regard to Mallory.  He added Stavros saving Mallory on the cliff.  He built up the scopolamine angle.  Mallory kills the traitor.  He added the wedding scene.  There was no well of water at the bottom of the elevator in the book.  (I bet Niven wished he had not added that!)  He made the story more anti-war.

Belle and Blade  =  2.0

Brassey’s              =  4.0

Video Hound       =  4.4

War Movies         =  5.0

Military History  =  #93

Channel 4             =  #14

Film Site                =  no

101 War Movies  =  yes

Rotten Tomatoes  =  no 

OPINION:  Although considered one of the great manly films, “Guns” is probably a bit overrated. It has some ridiculous moments like the escape from the German arresters and Pappidamos’ machine gun duel. Not to mention squeezing a song into a war movie! It also has several standard movie clichés like Stavros finding a woman in the end to restart his life. The Germans are depicted as not so much evil as stupid. The movie is also a little slow and talkie at times. When compared to a similar MacLean inspired movie, “Where Eagles Dare” (which did not make the list), it comes up short in almost every way.  However, as an example of an old school action movie set in war, it is pretty good. It has the old-fashioned soundtrack, stellar acting, and the twist of who the traitor is. It is rousing entertainment, but a bit staid.