Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven are Allied
6:
saboteurs assigned an impossible mission-infiltrate an
impregnable Nazi-held island,
and destroy the two enormous
long-range field guns that
prevent the rescue of 2,000
trapped British soldiers.
Blacklisted screenwriter Carl
Foreman (High Noon, The
Bridge on the River Kwar) was
determined to re-establish
both his name and credibility
after spending most of the
'50s working in anonymity.
To accomplish this, he decided to
bring Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel, The
Guns of Navarone, to the screen. Supported by an all-star cast
and produced on a grand scale, the film was an enormous
success, receiving seven 1961 Academy Award® nominations
(including Best Picture) and winning for Best Special Effects.
Although Foreman achieved his goal, it was MacLean who wound
up the true beneficiary; his novels became the source for many
high adventure screen epics, including Ice Station Zebra and
Where Eagles Dare. However it is The Guns of Navarone that
remains not only the best of the MacLean adaptations, but one of
the greatest action/adventure spectacles ever produced.