Movie #: Title:   Year: 1961         IMDB mediatype
Genre: Director:     IMDB   Rating:  NR  Box Set? box set?

FileNameRunTimeFileSize(MB)
0185 The Guns of Navarone.mp42:381831
Actors & their characters
David NivenFilter 
Gregory PeckFilter 
Anthony QuinnFilter 

Synopsis

1943. With the battle of Stalingrad turning the war against them, the Germans are attempting to bully neutral Turkey into joining the Axis; to this end they have trapped 2,000 British soldiers on Kiros, an island in the Aegean, with only one sea route for evacuation, a sea route commanded by two gigantic German antiship batteries deployed in a massive cliffside bunker on the island of Navarone. Immune to air attack and too much for Allied battleships to suppress. So a team of six Allied and Greek soldiers is put ashore to meet up with partisans to try and dynamite the guns. They find their equipment has been sabotaged, thus exposing a traitor in the team's ranks.  

More Info

This special-edition DVD gives the modern-day viewer a taste of what movies were like in 1961. Four curious featurettes are included, produced as publicity for the film. James Darren narrates a little ditty at his honeymoon in Malta during filming; Irene Papas narrates a giddy, old-fashioned look at "Two Girls on the Town." There's even a filmed bit with producer-writer Carl Foreman that showed once at the premiere. The 20-minute retrospective made in 1999 has the expected reminiscences from Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn. Director J. Lee Thompson's audio commentary is a bit frustrating; he's now in his 80s, and most of his recollections are slow in coming. A historian could have brought out the film's history (it was the most expensive movie ever made at time of release) and produced a more vital viewing. --Doug Thomas