The Guns of Navarone (film) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Guns of Navarone
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	J. Lee Thompson
Produced by	Carl Foreman
Screenplay by	Carl Foreman
Starring	Gregory Peck David Niven Anthony Quinn Stanley Baker Anthony Quayle Irene Papas Gia Scala James Darren
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography	Oswald Morris
Editing by	Alan Osbiston
Studio	Highroad Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	27 April 1961 (1961-04-27) (London) 28 April 1961 (1961-04-28) (United Kingdom) 22 June 1961 (1961-06-22) (United States)
Running time	158 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	million
Money made	.9 million

The Guns of Navarone is an exciting 1961 action adventure war film. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson and written by Carl Foreman. The movie is based on a popular 1957 book by Alistair MacLean with the same name. Carl Foreman also helped produce the film.

The movie stars famous actors like Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn. It also features Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, and James Darren. The story is about a group of brave Allied soldiers. They must destroy a huge German fortress that is causing trouble for Allied ships.

The Story of Navarone

The cliffs of 'Navarone' in the film were shown using real marble quarries in Italy.

The year is 1943, during World War II. The Axis powers, led by Germany, plan to attack the island of Kheros. About 2,000 British soldiers are stuck there. The Germans want to show off their power. This might convince Turkey, a neutral country, to join their side.

The Royal Navy cannot rescue the British soldiers. This is because of two giant, radar-guided guns on the nearby island of Navarone. These guns are very powerful. After bombing attempts fail, the Allies decide to send a special team. Their mission is to sneak onto Navarone and blow up the guns.

Major Roy Franklin leads this brave team. It includes Captain Keith Mallory, a skilled spy and climber. There is also Colonel Andrea Stavros from the Greek Army. Corporal Miller is an explosives expert and former teacher. Spyros Pappadimos is a Greek-American who knows Navarone well. Finally, there is Brown, an engineer and expert knife fighter.

The team pretends to be Greek fishermen. They sail across the Aegean Sea. They manage to capture a German patrol boat that stops them. Later, Mallory tells Franklin that Stavros wants to kill him after the war. This is because Mallory was accidentally involved in the deaths of Stavros's family.

A storm shipwrecks them on Navarone's coast. Mallory, a great climber, leads them up a steep cliff. During the climb, Franklin badly hurts his leg. They meet two local resistance fighters: Spyros's sister Maria and her friend Anna. Anna had been captured and questioned by the Germans before escaping.

German soldiers keep chasing the team. They are caught in a town called Mandrakos. They were looking for a doctor for Franklin, whose leg was getting worse. While being questioned, Stavros creates a distraction. The team overpowers their captors and escapes in German uniforms. They leave Franklin behind to get medical help.

As Mallory expected, Franklin is given a truth serum. He gives the Germans false information. This makes most German forces leave the fortress. They go to stop an attack that Mallory made them believe was coming. But when the team gets into Navarone village, Miller finds his explosives have been damaged. He realizes Anna is the one who did it.

Anna admits she didn't escape. The Germans made her an informer in exchange for her freedom. Mallory sadly prepares to stop Anna from telling the Germans. But Maria steps in and shoots Anna.

The team then splits up. Mallory and Miller go to the guns. Stavros and Spyros create diversions in town with help from locals. Maria and Brown steal a boat for their escape. Spyros dies in a shootout. Brown is hurt while stealing the boat.

Mallory and Miller get into the gun area. They set off an alarm when they seal the doors. Miller places explosives on the guns. He also sets a big trap under an ammunition lift. The Germans eventually get into the gun area and remove the explosives. But Mallory and Miller escape down the cliff. The stolen boat picks them up from the sea.

A wounded Stavros also reaches the sea. Mallory helps him onto the boat. This ends the bad feelings between them. Allied destroyers arrive to rescue the British troops. The Germans start firing at them. When the ammunition lift reaches Miller's trap, the hidden explosives blow up. This causes a huge explosion that destroys the guns and the fortress.

Mallory's team safely reaches the British ships. Stavros shakes Mallory's hand. He decides to stay on Navarone with Maria, as they have fallen in love. Mallory and Miller watch their success from a destroyer as they head home.

Meet the Cast

Making the Movie

The Guns of Navarone was one of many big World War II adventure movies made around that time. Other similar films include The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Great Escape (1963).

Alistair MacLean's book was a huge bestseller (a very popular book). Mike Frankovich, who was in charge of Columbia Pictures, loved it. He thought it would make a great movie. He showed it to Carl Foreman, who had written Bridge on the River Kwai. Foreman wasn't sure at first because making the movie would be hard. But he later changed his mind.

The book was inspired by a real event, the Battle of Leros. But the guns on Leros were much smaller than the giant ones in the book and movie. Carl Foreman changed some things from the book for the movie. For example, he changed the gender of some characters and added a conflict between Mallory and Andrea.

Carl Foreman wanted to direct the movie himself, but the studio wanted a British director. J. Lee Thompson got the job. Actor Gregory Peck was impressed by Thompson's earlier work. The role played by David Niven was first meant for Kenneth More.

Filming Locations

The movie was filmed in beautiful places. The Greek island of Rhodes was a main filming spot from April to July 1960. Actor Anthony Quinn loved the area so much that he bought land there. The place is still called Anthony Quinn Bay today.

Some other scenes were filmed on the islands of Gozo (near Malta) and Tino (in Italy). One of the warships in the movie, the USS Slater, is now a museum ship in New York.

During filming, David Niven became very sick after shooting scenes in a dirty pool of water. He had to stay in the hospital for weeks. It was unclear if he would be able to finish the movie. But Niven felt it was important to complete his work, even against medical advice. He returned to finish his scenes.

Another challenge was that Gregory Peck's character was supposed to speak fluent German. But Peck couldn't speak it convincingly. So, a voice actor named Robert Rietty spoke all of Peck's German lines for the film. The maps used in the movie were made by a British animation team called Halas and Batchelor.

Even though Navarone is a made-up island, a map in the film shows it as the real island of Antikythera. Several members of the Greek royal family visited the set one day. They even appeared as extras in the background of a scene!

Movie Music

The music for The Guns of Navarone was created by Dimitri Tiomkin. It also included new versions of some traditional songs.

• "The Guns of Navarone" (music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster)
• "Karagouna" (traditional Greek song)
• "Ena Karavi Apo Ti Chio" (traditional Greek song)
• "Yalo Yalo" (traditional Greek song)
• "Treu Sein" (music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Alfred Perry)
• "Das Sundenlied" (music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Alfred Perry)

Tiomkin's main song for the movie became very popular. Many artists made their own versions of it. This includes The Skatalites in 1965.

Awards and Recognitions

The Guns of Navarone won and was nominated for many awards.

The film is also recognized by the American Film Institute on this list:

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills—#89 (This list ranks the most thrilling movies.)

The Sequel

In 1968, the author Alistair MacLean wrote a second book. It was called Force 10 From Navarone. This book brought back the characters Mallory, Miller, and Stavros. It was the only sequel MacLean ever wrote.

This second book was also made into a movie in 1978. The film was called Force 10 from Navarone. It was directed by Guy Hamilton, who also directed some James Bond films. The cast included Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, and Edward Fox. While the sequel did okay, it wasn't as popular or well-received as the first movie.