The Guns of Navarone
The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 epic war film directed by J. Lee Thompson, written and produced by Carl Foreman, and starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, Richard Harris and James Darren. It is an adaptation of Alistair MacLean's 1957 novel. The film follows 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 Keros, where 2,000 British soldiers are marooned, hoping to convince neutral Turkey to join them. Rescue by the Royal Navy is prevented by two enormous radar-directed large-calibre guns on Navarone Island. Aerial bombing fails to destroy the guns and Allied Intelligence assigns a commando unit to infiltrate Navarone and destroy the guns. Led by Major Roy Franklin, the team is composed of Captain Keith Mallory, an ex-spy and an officer with the Long Range Desert Group; Colonel Andrea Stavros from the Greek Army; Franklin's friend Corporal John Miller, an explosives expert and chemistry professor; Greco-American Spyros Pappadimos, a native of Navarone; and Casey "The Butcher of Barcelona" Brown, an engineer and knife fighter.