The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 action adventure war film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, based on Alistair MacLean's 1957 novel.

In 1943, the Axis powers plan an assault on the island of Kheros, where 2,000 British soldiers are marooned, to display their military strength and convince neutral Turkey to join them.

Led by Major Roy Franklin, the team is composed of Captain Keith Mallory, a spy and an officer with the Long Range Desert Group; Colonel Andrea Stavros from the Greek Army; Franklin's friend Corporal Miller, an explosives expert and chemistry professor; Greco-American Spyros Pappadimos, a native of Navarone; and "The Butcher of Barcelona" Brown, an engineer and knife fighter.

Disguised as Greek fishermen on a decrepit fishing vessel, they sail across the Aegean Sea, where they overwhelm the crew of a German patrol boat.

Franklin is injected with scopolamine and gives up Mallory's misinformation, causing most forces to leave the fortress to counter the expected coastal attack.

Peter Grant, future music manager of the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and Bad Company, played an uncredited British commando.

The film was part of a cycle of big-budget World War II adventures that included The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Longest Day (1962) and The Great Escape (1963).

He showed it to Carl Foreman, who had written Bridge on the River Kwai and had a producing deal with Columbia, who was not as enthusiastic at first, in part because he knew how difficult making a movie version would be.

[5] However, they may have been inspired by the four naval 305mm (12 inch) Obukhovskii 12"/52 Pattern 1907 guns, which were 15.85 metres long and installed by the Germans at the Batterie Mirus on the island of Guernsey in 1942.

The job went to Alexander Mackendrick (director of The Sweet Smell of Success), who said he "wanted to take what was essentially a typical, action-packed wartime melodrama and give it some pretentious overtones.

Several members of the Greek royal family visited the set the day the Mandrakos cafe scene was filmed and appear in the background as extras.

[1] Reviews were mostly positive; Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film "one of those muscle-loaded pictures in the thundering tradition of DeMille, which means more emphasis is placed on melodrama than on character or credibility."

"[16] Variety wrote that the film was "the sort of spectacular drama that can ignore any TV competition and, even with its flaws, should have patrons firmly riveted throughout its lengthy narrative.

With a bunch of weighty stars, terrific special effects, several socko situations plus good camerawork and other technical okays, Foreman and director J. Lee Thompson have sired a winner.

The review also criticized director Thompson for lacking "the ability of the Hollywood veterans to hold a long picture together" and instead of moving the action forward "in a series of jerks.

"[22] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote- "The Guns of Navarone is a lively adventure picture full of vivid action, obviously contrived but effective suspense.