McGuire, Go Home!

Set in Island of Cyprus in the revolutionary 1957, there rebels fight against the occupying English forces , during the bloody political minefield of the fifties . it deals with a student who spends a vacation at a villa to investigate about archeologic excavation and then she becomes trapped between the two warring sides . As she witnesses a resistance attack against British military in which die some soldiers. Shortly after, the vengeful local guerrilla plots to murder her in order to silence her. Dirk Bogarde is Major McGuire, an English officer whose efforts to stem Eoka guerrilla are compromised when he falls in love for American-Cyprus gal called Juno , Susan Strasberg, who is caught in the tumultuous war . As she stands at a villa where appears some Cypriot guerrilleros leaders, George Chakiris , and the chief guerrilla, Gregoire Aslan, is hiding . Along the way Juno, Susan Strasberg, is mercilessly chased by Chakiris who lays it on as a fanatical patriot . Before you stop a Bullet , before you trip over a love affair , before you foul up the whole revolution...

This is a thriller movie more than a romatic drama , in which there are thrills , emotion , crossfire , a love story , and a long as well as relentless pursuit . Misguided director Ralph Thomas attempts to create a romantic drama out of the British military presence in the late 50s , there a British Intelligence man becomes involved with an archeology student lodging at a villa . It is an acceptable and decent film , unfortunately , the storyline by Ian Stuart Beach from his own novel does not make it through the political scenarios created by a very thunderous independence conflict. Main cast, Dirk Bogarde , Susan Strasberg , George Chakiris , give enjoyable acting , similar to support cast, formed by a fine plethora of British actors , such as : Nigel Stock , Denholm Eliott , Gregoire Aslan, George Pastell, Colin Campbell , Joseph Fuest , among others .

It contains a colorful and brilliant cinematography by Ernest Steward . And evocative and atmospheric musical score by the Italian Angelo Francesco Lavagnino . This film , The high bright sun , also titled : McGuire go home , was well produced by Betty Box for the Rank Organization , being profesionally directed by Ralph Thomas , though it has some failures , flaws and gaps . Thomas was a good British craftsman who directed several films of all kinds of genres with a special penchant for comedy . His fetish actor was Dick Bogarde with whom worked in various films , many of them belong to "Doctor series" , as Doctor in house . As Ralph Thomas made : The Clouded yellow , Appointment with Venus , Upstairs and downstairs, Conspiracy of hearts , Hot-enough for June , The wind can not read , Nobody runs forever , Quest for love , Percy , Percy progress , and a Hitchcock remake : 39 stairs . Rating : 6/10. The flick will appeal to Dirk Bogarde fans .

"The High Bright Sun" is a 1964 film about an American girl (Susan Strasberg) caught in the Cypriot fight against the British in the '50s. The stars are Dirk Bogarde, George Chakiris and Denholm Elliot. While staying at the home of a family friend, Strasberg sees someone that she's not supposed to, and the guerrillas decide that she has to die before she tells a frequent visitor to the house, Major McGuire (Bogarde) what she's seen.

Bogarde made this film for Betty Box and Ralph Thomas of the Rank "Doctor" franchise, and it was apparently an unpleasant experience. He wasn't feeling well, the location town was a little too primitive for his tastes, and he got into a huge fight with the director, Thomas, at one point. Fortunately it was a pretty fast shoot.

Beautiful location shots and lots of suspense as the Strasberg character runs for her life. The performances are good - Strasberg could have been stronger, but the script was a little sketchy in regard to her character.

I think anything with Bogarde is worth watching.

I like many things about this movie. First, the story. Although it certainly has flaws, it is very interesting. All the time I was watching the movie I was trying to decide if the British and the Cyprus people were portrayed objectively or not. With the exception of few scenes (boys with a knife in the beginning and the character of Hagios) I think they are. For most of the movie Bogarde is not a nice guy at all. This only goes to show the wide variety of roles he embodied.

And I must say that I don't understand other people's negative comments about Susan Strasberg, I think she was great here. And most of all, she was gorgeous, in a natural way.

If only the plot was relieved from a few clumsy turns, it could have been a great movie...

Back in 1957, Cypriots were fighting against the British occupying forces. After all, they wanted their own government and not be a colony of the United Kingdom. The viewer is expected to believe that in the midst of this civil war, an American tourist goes to Cypress to hang out with the locals and garden! Yes, Juno (Susan Strasberg) is apparently interested in hanging out in a war zone. And, while she wishes to remain neutral and on good terms with the Brits and locals, she is inexorably pulled into it...and doesn't have the common sense to leave.

So despite a dumb set-up, why did I watch this film? Because it stars Dirk Bogarde...and I'd watch this excellent actor in anything. Unfortunately, in addition to the dopey story idea, the film itself is sluggish and amazingly uninteresting...with an almost detached emotional feel to it. Not a good film but not exactly terrible either.

Something of a romantic potboiler but strongly redeemed by two factors which stamp it as a thoroughly British rather than a Hollywood production. First, the gritty realism of its portrayal of the Cypriot independence struggle against British military rule in the 1950s. Second, its warts-and-all portrayal of everyday relationships and behaviour, instead of the typical Hollywood sanitized morality of the era.

All you need to know about Cyprus is that the locals ran a successful guerilla war against British rule in the 1950s. Against that background, the movie sets up a tangle of love and conflicting loyalties for a British officer and a beautiful Cypriot-American visitor, which generates plenty of action, suspense and tough moral choices. The characters are portrayed with refreshing realism - a few four and seven letter words pepper the script along with references to rape, divorce, alcoholism and extra-marital sex, which would have been fairly shocking for the era and probably even when the movie was made in the 1960s.

Despite a few improbable aspects of the plot (eg the officer lives in an unguarded apartment in town where his security is always at risk), the overall result is a convincingly bold, brassy, in-your-face portrayal of life and love in the middle of a dirty war - and a moderately good thriller into the bargain.