Trivia for
The Guns of Navarone (1961) More at IMDbPro »

• Anthony Quayle spent part of WWII in Albania organizing guerilla forces.
  
  
• William Holden asked for $750,000 plus 10% of the gross to play Mallory. He was turned down and Gregory Peck was cast.
  
  
• One of the Rhodian locations used in the film has been renamed "Anthony Quinn Bay" after the actor was reported to have bought property nearby.
  
  
• The plot went through so many twists that Gregory Peck finally submitted his own version to Carl Foreman: "David Niven really loves Anthony Quayle and Gregory Peck loves Anthony Quinn. Tony Quayle breaks a leg and is sent off to hospital. Tony Quinn falls in love with Irene Papas, and Niven and Peck catch each other on the rebound and live happily ever after."
  
  
• The only time David Niven ever smoked cigarettes on screen.
  
  
• Original director was Alexander Mackendrick, but he was fired by Carl Foreman due to "creative differences".
  
  
• David Niven wears a Light Infantry cap badge on his beret. This was the regiment he was commissioned into in WW2.
  
  
• David Niven replaced Kenneth More.
  
  
• Dean Martin and Alec Guinness were considered for David Niven's role.
  
  
• Despite the narrated prologue (see Memorable Quotes) setting the "historical background", this is a work of fiction. There was no such mission, because there never were any guns of Navarone.
  
  
• Rock Hudson was considered for Gregory Peck's role. Cary Grant was also briefly considered, but was rejected as being too old at 56.
  
  
• Gregory Peck often said he was disappointed that so many viewers had missed how anti-war the film was intended to be.
  
  
• "Yialo Yialo" ("Seashore, Seashore"), heard sung at a wedding celebration, is a Greek folk song about love and the sea. As with many provincial folk songs, verses are often improvised as it's sung. The first verse heard in the film (asking the sea not to wake the singer's beloved) is standard, while the second verse, sung by actor/singer James Darren, is ostensibly improvised. The verse asks the mountains to bow down so that he can see his dearest love, "Anoula", and far-away home, "Rahoula".
  
  
• Stanley Baker's character, Pvt. Brown is referred to as "The Butcher of Barcelona" by Capt Mallory, as a reference to his service with the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. In the 1930s, Carl Foreman, the producer and screenwriter of the film, had been a member of the Communist Party, many of whose members fought for the Republic during the Civil War. Foreman was blacklisted during the early 1950s and moved to England, where he continued to work in the film industry. During the period of the blacklist, left-wing supporters of the Spanish Republic often were denounced for being "premature anti-fascists" for having fought against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini before the U.S. went to war against the Axis two years after the collapse of the Spanish Republic.
  
  
• There was some surprise that Stanley Baker, who in 1960 was considered the most popular British movie star, accepted the relatively small supporting role of Private "Butcher" Brown. Baker revealed that he wanted to be in the movie because he was impressed at how anti-war the screenplay by the blacklisted writer Carl Foreman was.
  
  
• James Darren was cast as Private Spyros Pappadimos in hopes it would get him out of the "teen idol" stage. However, the sequel to 'Gidget' came out later in the year, starring James Darren as Moondoggie.
  
  
• Gregory Peck revealed, in a later interview, his bemusement at co-star Anthony Quinn's decision to wear a red undershirt, which was only somewhat revealed through most of the film, but which became a glaring focal point when wet and placed against a most blue and gray background near the end of the movie.
  
  
• The $50,000 fee paid to composer Dimitri Tiomkin was the highest fee paid to a composer for a single feature film score up to that time.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Actor Michael Trubshawe (Weaver) was David Niven's oldest friend. The two men served in the military together as young men, and Niven was later responsible for persuading Trubshawe to pursue an acting career. Niven also made it an inside joke to try to mention Trubshawe's name in as many of his own films as he could, usually as a reference to some unseen character.
  
  
• Gregory Peck declined to attempt an English accent in order to play Captain Mallory.
  
  
• David Niven initially felt that he was badly miscast in the offbeat role of a corporal, but later said he considered it to be one of his best performances despite being too old for the part.
  
  
• Because the stars were all too old for their characters, the movie was nicknamed "Elderly Gang Goes Off to War" by the British press.
  
  
• There had been some concern that the cast would not get along, particularly since Anthony Quinn had a reputation for being difficult to work with. However, in the event things went smoothly, although according to Quinn Stanley Baker did not get along with the others. Some of the cast believed that Baker felt he should have been playing Mallory.
  
  
• With a budget of $6 million, at the time, this was one of the most expensive films ever made.
  
  
• There is no Navarone in real life.
  
  
• Director J. Lee Thompson's first American feature was also his opportunity of working with some of the biggest Hollywood stars.
  
  
• For the scene where the commandos scale the near-vertical cliff, the rockface was a painted backdrop laid out on the ground, so the actors were actually climbing over the studio floor and then the image was tilted in camera.
  
  
• J. Lee Thompson's handling of intimate drama on Tiger Bay (1959) and of large scale action setpieces on North West Frontier (1959) landed him the director gig.
  
  
• The screenplay differs drastically from Alistair MacLean's book in terms of characters, including the identity of the traitor and the two women who don't even appear in the novel.
  
  
• The top grossing film of 1961.
  
  
• 80s rock group Big Country borrowed from Dimitri Tiomkin's score to create the guitar riff on their hit "Fields of Fire".
  
  
• James Darren was concurrently on honeymoon during filming.
  
  
• Anthony Quinn was always Carl Foreman's first choice to play Stavros.
  
  
• Some members of the Greek royal family and their entourage were extras in the café scene as they were visiting the set on the day that scene was being filmed.
  
  
• Producer Carl Foreman brokered a deal with the Greek army where he had 12 destroyers and over 1000 infantrymen at his disposal.
  
  
• According to the 50th anniversary book about the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight the Flight's Lancaster appeared in the film.
  
  
• During WWII, 'David Niven' commanded units in both the Commandos and the GHQ Liaison Regiment, a special reconnaissance unit that operated behind enemy lines.
  
  

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