Review of Force 10 from Navarone (1978) by Ola G — 12 May 2018

In 1943, after their successful mission on the Greek island of Navarone, Major Keith Mallory (Robert Shaw) and Sergeant John Miller (Edward Fox) are sent to find and kill Nicolai. Originally thought to be a traitor who informed the Germans about Miller and Mallory during the Navarone mission, Nicolai is now known to be Colonel von Ingorslebon, a German spy believed to have infiltrated the Yugoslav Partisans as "Captain Lescovar" (Franco Nero). To get to Yugoslavia, the two men pair with "Force 10", an American sabotage unit, led by Colonel Mike Barnsby (Harrison Ford).

I am not that fond of the 1961 film "The Guns of Navarone" despite its status as a classic, and I am not that fond of the sequel "Force 10 from Navarone" now when I have finally seen it. This is just too slapsticky almost comic like for me with a mixed cast, some good choices and some terrible ones (Richard Kiel and Barbara Bach). The acting is very mixed, the effects and sets are truly mixed, the stunts are way too visible, the story is not that intriguing, replacing the parts of Mallory and Miller with Robert Shaw and Edward Fox (originally portrayed by Gregory Peck and David Niven) is so so, even the death scenes are overdramatized (you´d think the film was made in the 60s) and Guy Hamilton was obviously not the right choice of director for this type of film. "Force 10 from Navarone" is a disappointment in my eyes.

Trivia: Initially there had been plans to film this movie shortly after The Guns of Navarone (1961) with Gregory Peck and David Niven reprising their roles. Following the success of the original movie producer Carl Foreman asked Alistair MacLean to write a hardcover sequel novel on which a follow-up film would be based, but the author was reluctant to write an entire novel and instead delivered a screen treatment. The film was announced for 1967 but after the script got bogged down in studio development hell MacLean decided to develop the screen treatment as a book and Force 10 from Navarone was published in 1968. Throughout the 1970s Foreman tried to get enough financial backing for the movie and eventually patched together enough money to finance the production from no fewer than five different international sources.