The Guns of Navarone

The Guns of Navarone is an action-packed World War II novel by Alistair MacLean, published in 1957. It tells the story of a team of ace allied commandos whose mission is to blow up a pair of gigantic German artillery guns which imperil British action in Nazi-occupied Greece. The book was followed in 1968 by an inferior sequel, Force 10 from Navarone.

The Guns of Navarone was made into a motion picture in 1961. The screenplay was adapted by Carl Foreman, who also produced the film, and it was directed by J. Lee Thompson. The original director, Alexander Mackendrick, was fired by Foreman due to "creative differences."

The film departs from the "pure adventure" format of MacLean by introducing female characters and sexuality. The film stars Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, James Darren, Irene Papas, Gia Scala and Richard Harris. During filming, Anthony Quinn fell in love with the area, and bought land on the Island of Rhodes where filming was done. The area is still called Anthony Quinn Bay.

The film won the Academy Award for Visual Effects and was nominated in six other categories: Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.