Captain Horatio Hornblower

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (released in the U.S. without the 'R.N.') is a 1951 naval adventure film. It was directed by Raoul Walsh and stars Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty and Terence Morgan.


It was based upon three of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, The Happy Return (Beat to Quarters in the United States), A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours. Forester is credited with the adaptation; as a result, the film is faithful to his novels and features an occasionally introspective tone unusual for an old-fashioned swashbuckler.

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Plot Synopsis;

In 1807, Royal Navy Captain Horatio Hornblower (Gregory Peck), commanding the 36-gun frigate HMS Lydia, is on a lengthy secret mission to Central America. He is to provide arms and support to a megalomaniac calling himself "El Supremo" or "The Almighty" (Alec Mango) in his rebellion against Spain, an ally of Britain's enemy France during the Napoleonic Wars. As Hornblower observes to First Lieutenant Bush (Robert Beatty), "War breeds strange allies."

Upon his arrival, the Englishman is told that a larger, much more powerful Spanish warship, the 50-gun Natividad, has been sighted. When it anchors nearby, Hornblower and his crew board and capture it in a surprise nighttime attack. He then reluctantly hands the ship over to El Supremo to appease the madman and they go their separate ways.

Later, he encounters a small Spanish vessel with a pair of troublesome passengers. First, a Spanish official informs him (and provides proof) that Spain has switched sides. Then Lady Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo) "requests" passage back to England for her and her maid. Due to a deadly epidemic raging ashore and her influential relations (she is the fictitious sister of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington), Hornblower is in no position to refuse, even though he has to sink the Natividad. Using masterful tactics, he accomplishes his mission. With the danger gone, the Spaniards insist he leave.

On the voyage back to England, Lady Barbara falls gravely ill and is nursed back to health by him. They spend many enjoyable nights talking and playing whist. They fall in love, but he rejects her advances, explaining that he is married.

After arriving home, he learns that his wife Maria has died. Hornblower is given command of the Sutherland, a powerful ship of the line captured from the French and is assigned to a squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Rodney Leighton (Denis O'Dea), Lady Barbara's pompous new husband. The squadron's mission is to help enforce the British blockade against Napoleonic France.

At a conference on Leighton's flagship, Hornblower urges a wide deployment to counter any sortie of the French Navy in support of Napoleon's campaign on the Iberian Peninsula. However, a suspicious Leighton expressly forbids Hornblower from taking any independent action without his permission.

Hornblower's French-built ship is subsequently mistaken for a friendly vessel by a French ship, making for its easy capture. Hornblower learns the enemy's recognition signal for the day, as well as vital intelligence that four French ships of the line carrying troops and supplies have slipped the blockade and are heading to Spain.

 

Faced with the urgency of the situation, Hornblower decides on his own initiative to attempt to find and sink the ships. He locates them anchored in a harbour guarded by a well-armed fort. By flying a French flag and the recognition signal, as well as taking advantage of the appearance of his ship's French design, Hornblower fools the garrison into believing that the Sutherland is friendly, enters the harbor unhindered, and proceeds to sink or damage all four enemy ships. The French fort then opens fire, and Hornblower and the rest of the surviving crew have to abandon ship, but not before deliberately sinking the Sutherland in the harbor channel to bottle up the French ships.

The rest of the British squadron arrives shortly afterward to complete the job; Leighton is killed in the ensuing battle. Hornblower and Bush, accompanied by seaman Quist (James Robertson Justice), are taken by carriage to Paris to be tried on the trumped-up charge of espionage and executed. However, they manage to escape en route and make their way to a port. Disguised as Dutch officers, they board The Witch of Endor, a captured British ship, overpower the skeleton crew, free a working party of British prisoners of war to man her and sail away to freedom.

At his mandatory court-martial, Hornblower is acquitted and is hailed as a national hero. With their spouses both deceased, the two lovebirds are free to pursue their romance.

The Guns of Navarone

Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven are the Allied saboteurs assigned to infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island to destroy the guns of Navarone in this thrilling World War II adventure.

The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 film based on the 1957 novel of the same name about World War II by Scottish thriller writer Alistair MacLean. It stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Anthony Quayle and Stanley Baker. The book and the film share the same basic plot: the efforts of an Allied commando team to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea, and prevents 2,000 isolated British troops from being rescued.

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The film opens with an aerial view of the Greek Islands, and a narrator (James Robertson Justice), setting the scene. The year is 1943, and 2000 British soldiers are holed up on the island of Keros in the Aegean near Turkey. Rescue by the Royal Navy is impossible because of massive guns on the nearby island of Navarone. Time is short, because the Germans are expected to launch an assault on the British forces, to draw Turkey into the war on the Axis' side.

Efforts to blast the guns by air have proven fruitless, so a team has been hastily assembled to sail to Navarone and blow up the guns. Led by Major Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle), they are Capt. Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck); Andrea Stavros (Anthony Quinn), a Colonel in the defeated Greek army; Corporal Miller (David Niven), an explosives expert; Greek-American street tough Spyros Pappadimos (James Darren); and "Butcher" Brown (Stanley Baker), an engineer and expert knife fighter.

Disguised as Greek fishermen on a decrepit boat, they sail across the Aegean Sea. They are intercepted by a German boat and boarded. On Mallory's signal, they attack and kill all the Germans and blow up the patrol boat. Afterwards, Mallory confides to Franklin that Stavros has sworn to kill him after the war, because he was inadvertently responsible for the deaths of Stavros' wife and children.

Their landing on the coast that night is hampered by a violent storm. The ship is wrecked and they lose part of their equipment, most notably the food and medical supplies. Franklin is badly injured while scaling the cliff, the injury later becoming infected with gangrene. They find that the cliff is in fact guarded after all. Miller, a friend of Franklin, suggests that they leave Franklin to be "well cared for" by the enemy. Mallory, who assumes command of the mission, feels that Franklin would be forced to reveal their plans, so he orders two men to carry the injured man on a stretcher.

After Franklin tries to commit suicide, Mallory lies to him, saying that their mission has been "scrubbed" and that a major naval attack will be mounted on Navarone. Attacked by German soldiers, they split up, leaving Andrea behind with his sniper rifle, while they move on to their next rendezvous point. They contact local resistance workers, Spyros's sister Maria (Irene Papas) and her friend Anna (Gia Scala).

The mission is continually dogged by Germans - clearly there is a major intelligence leak - but they make their way across the rugged countryside, but are captured by German Lieutenant Muesel (Walter Gotell) when they try to find a doctor for Franklin. Muesel and later Captain Sessler (George Mikell) of the SS fail to persuade the commandos to tell them where Miller's explosives are. A ploy on Stavros' part where he pretends to betray the others and instead attacks the Germans, allows the group to overpower their captors.

They take the Germans' uniforms and leave, but leave Franklin behind so he can get medical attention. Franklin is injected with the truth drug scopolamine by Sessler and gives up the false "information", as Mallory had hoped. As a result, German units are deployed away from the guns and in the direction of the supposed "invasion" route.

While making final preparations for the destruction of the guns, Miller discovers that most of his explosives have been sabotaged and deduces that Anna is the saboteur. She pleads that she was coerced by the Germans into treachery, but while Mallory and Miller argue over her fate, complicated by Mallory's seduction by Anna the night before, Maria shoots her dead as a price of disloyalty. The team splits up to carry out their objectives: While Mallory and Miller go for the guns, Stavros and Pappadimos are to create a distraction in the city; Maria and Brown are assigned to steal a boat for their escape. Mallory and Miller find a way into the heavily fortified gun emplacements. Locking the main entrance behind them, Mallory and Miller set obvious explosives on the guns and hide more below the elevator leading to the guns. The Germans finally cut through the thick emplacement doors, but Mallory and Miller make their escape by diving into the sea. Despite Miller's inability to swim, they make it to the stolen boat, but learn that Pappadimos and Brown have been killed. Stavros is wounded and has difficulty swimming, but Mallory manages to pull him in.

The destroyers appear on schedule. The Germans remove the explosives planted on the guns and fire. The first salvo falls short. The second brackets the lead ship, which means the third will likely be on target. However, just as the guns are prepared to fire again, the elevator descends low enough to trigger the hidden explosives. The guns and fortifications are destroyed in a spectacular explosion. Franklin hears it from his hospital bed and smiles.

Mallory and Miller are taken on board the destroyer, while Stavros, who has fallen in love with Maria, decides to return to Navarone with her and shakes hands with Mallory, having given up his planned vengeance when Mallory risked his life to save him.

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Roman Holiday (1953)

Audrey Hepburn at her Oscar-winning best in an immortal comedy-romance - Roman Holiday!

Princess Anne embarks on a highly publicized tour of Europian capitals. When she and her royal entourage arrive in Rome, she begins to rebel against her restricted, regimented schedule. One night Anne sneaks out of her room, hops into the back of a delivery truck and escapes her luxurious confinement. However, a sedative she was forced to take earlier starts to take effect, and the princess is soon fast asleep on a public bench. She is found by Joe Bradley, an American newspaper reporter stationed in Rome. He takes her back to his apartment. The next morning Joe dashes off to cover the Princess Anne press conference, unaware that she is sleeping on his couch! Once he realizes his good fortune, Joe promises his editor an exclusive interview with the princess.

Part One

Part Two

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Guns of Navarone

1961 Star Studded War and Adventure Movie
In the Guns of Navarone, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven and Richard Harris are the Allied saboteurs assigned to infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island to destroy the guns of Navarone in this thrilling World War II adventure.

1943. With the battle of Stalingrad turning the war against them, the Germans are attempting to bully neutral Turkey into joining the Axis; to this end they have trapped 2,000 British soldiers on Kiros, an island in the Aegean, with only one sea route for evacuation, a sea route commanded by two gigantic German antiship batteries deployed in a massive cliffside bunker on the island of Navarone. Immune to air attack and too much for Allied battleships to suppress, the British muster Keith Mallory, a commando officer who has been working on occupied Crete for nearly two years and who is an expert mountaineer, to ferry a team of British commandos to the only area of Navarone that is not monitored by the Germans, a 400-foot cliff. Greek resistance is to meet the team inland and guide them around German patrols to the area of the German guns. However, the commanding officer of the British team suffers grave injury in the climb and Mallory must take control of the mission, despite clashes with explosives expert John Anthony Miller, who upon the arrival of the night of the raid finds his equipment has been sabotaged, thus exposing a traitor in the team's ranks. 
The Guns of Navarone - Buy Now! (Collector's Edition)

Trivial Info;
There was reportedly much tension between many of the stars (particularly Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn) early in the film's production, but the cast gradually bonded over endless games of chess.
Revealing mistakes: When Mallory and Miller are sitting in the truck below the guns, they use a small flashlight to illuminate the map. As they move the flashlight across the map, the circle of light stops but the flashlight continues to move for a moment after the circle of light stops moving; Mallory quickly moves it back. This shows the flashlight is not the light source on the map.

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