They Who Dare

They Who Dare is directed by Lewis Milestone and written by Robert Westerby. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Denholm Elliott, Akim Tamiroff, William Russell, Eric Pohlmann and Harold Siddons. Music is by Robert Gill and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.

It's "men on a mission" time as Special Commandos and some Greek partisans meet up on Rhodes to blow up two German airfields. And that's about it really, oh of course there's problems along the way such as questions of loyalty, hazards and set-backs such as minefields, and talking – lots of talking - as the men stand or sit around pondering the war and or - their own inadequacies etc. When the big action finale comes it is kind of worth the wait, but the performances are only adequate throughout and the script is lazily written to the point of tedium setting in. 5/10

World War II movie, of British production, which does not have anything that justifies the time one could possibly spare to see it, other than the great Dirk Bogarde starring, with the good British actor Denholm Elliott in a second role. The scenario is rather conventional (we have seen this stuff many times) and does not develop the characters and their relations as it could. It has also attempted to give a Greek aroma, in a very clumsy way: as there is not even one Greek actor among the cast the spoken Greek sound very strange (at least to someone who knows the language like me). Additionally, the portrait of the Greeks falls into a lot of stereotypes, which sometimes are offensive to these people, revealing more things about the script writer himself than the actual Greeks. I have given to this movie 4 out of 10.

The veteran director Lewis Milestone, who made the classic "All Quiet on the Western Front", takes on a British World War II picture with this exciting movie. It's notable for being shot in Technicolor, with outstanding location photography by Wilkie Cooper, differentiating it from so many black & white movies about the war.

Dirk Bogarde and Denholm Elliott lead a dozen men on a dangerous mission to blow up two airfields located on the Italian & German occupied Greek island of Rhodes. It's not to be accomplished as an air raid but by Dirk's men planting bombs by hand, arriving and hoping to escape by submarine.

Milestone sustains considerable suspense as we wonder who might survey the mission, and an ensemble cast does a convincing job of keeping the dialogue lively. Not very well-known in its genre but well worth watching.

A British war drama; A story about a band of British commandos assigned to sabotage two Nazi outposts in the Aegean. This film is based on the British military mission Operation Anglo during World War II, an inspiring tale of a Special Boat Service attempt to disrupt the Luftwaffe from threatening Allied forces in Egypt. However, the film lacks thrills and is a rather predictable men-on-mission tale. Danger and action come without much suspense, and the film has a throwaway ending. Dirk Bogarde seems miscast as the leader of a deadly commando unit, and the rest of the cast, who perform well, are poorly served by sloppy dialogue. To its credit, the action is convincing, it has some attractive locations, and the colour and light of the setting are richly captured.

This film will be of great interest to WW2 Aviation enthusiasts as it features several authentic Italian Savoia - Marchetti S.M. 79 three - motor bombers. These aircraft were provided by the Lebanese Air Force which was the last operator of the type.

I would make an educated guess that this film was shot on Cyprus as there is an abundance of British Army trucks and armoured cars modified and painted to resemble German vehicles. A Bristol Beaufighter aircraft can also be briefly glimpsed during the airfield attack sequence.

The special effects ,such as model aircraft being blown up, are not up to modern standards but they are no worse than other 1950s war movies such as "The Dambusters".