Year Released: 1961
Directed by: J. Lee Thompson
Starring: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn
(Not Rated, 168 min.)
Genre: Drama, War Film

“The only way to win a war is be as nasty as the enemy.” –Captain Mallory (Gregory Peck)

This critical and box office success has as much action as the Bond or the Furious franchises, and it was all done 6 decades ago. Along the way, in between evading trigger-happy Nazis, a hull-crushing storm at sea, and a dizzying climb up a sheer black wall made extra dangerous by the storm, the characters have time for some pretty insightful ruminations on the ethics of war.

A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.

Some of the best ruminations are between Gregory Peck’s Captain Keith Mallory, who is a renowned spy and well known mountain climber, and David Niven’s Corporal Miller. Recruited for this mission because of his magic ability with explosives, Miller, the former chemistry teacher has a softer side and keeps rejecting Captain Mallory’s commands.

When a mole in their midst is discovered, things come to a fast boil, especially when Miller tells Mallory to “Climb down from that cross of yours, close your eyes, think of England, and kill her.”

Mallory:
Well, if you're so anxious to kill her, go ahead!

Corporal Miller:
I'm not anxious to kill her, I'm not anxious to kill anyone. You see, I'm not a born soldier. I was trapped. You may find me facetious from time to time, but if I didn't make some rather bad jokes I'd go out of my mind. No, I prefer to leave the killing to someone like you, an officer and a gentleman, a leader of men.

Mallory:
If you think I wanted this, any of this, you're out of your mind. I was trapped like you, just like anyone who put on the uniform!

Corporal Miller:
Of course, you wanted it. You're an officer, aren't you? I never let them make me an officer! I don't want the responsibility!

Mallory:
So you've had a free ride, all this time! Someone's got to take responsibility if the job's going to get done! You think that's easy?

***

In fact, throughout, David Niven’s Corporal Miller is so confrontational that we really begin to despise the little self-righteous worm.

That is, until we get down to the nitty gritty and they have to set up the explosives on the actual mammoth guns, all the while counting the minutes until armed Nazis cut through the iron entrance door with their acetylene torches.

Then Corporal Miller is all down to business, even setting up one explosive to lure them into thinking that is the only one. The other explosive charge he has to set up under a dank pit of water under the guns.

In reality, after Niven did the underwater work in that fetid pit he became infected and had to be hospitalized for weeks, thus not just delaying production, but threatening to put a spanner in the film engine itself. Ignoring his doctors, Niven finished the filming sequences and then had to go back to the hospital for another 7 weeks.

So the actors, not just the characters they played, were sometimes heroes in themselves as well.

***

Adding to the drama, some of it injected by screenwriter Carl Foreman, who adapted Alistair MacLean’s best selling novel of the same name, was the life and death hatred between Anthony Quinn’s character and Mallory. Kind of reminding Different drummer of all those (I think) engineered frictions on reality shows like The Deadliest Catch.

In his more naïve days, when Mallory had “some romantic notions about fighting a civilized war,” he had given safe passage to some German troops to get their troops to a hospital in Crete, where Anthony Quinn’s Colonel Stavrou was much hated by the German invaders. The results of Mallory’s softness were disastrous, with Stavrou vowing to “kill him when the war is over.” But for this mission, they have a separate peace, or so we would hope. It also gives us some background on Mallory’s later and sometimes harsh expedient leadership style.

Another fine actor to grace this film, Quinn also offered insight the director, J. Lee Thompson, who had to be brought in at the last minute stand in to replace Alexander Mackendrick, whose perfectionist nature about scouting film locations and injecting Greek literature into the film earned him an early exit.

Quinn had his own colorful description of the last minute stand in, who seemed to err in the opposite direction:

Never read a scene until he had to shoot it and approached each shot on a whim. And yet the cumulative effect was astonishing. Lee Thompson made a marvelous picture but how? Perhaps his inventiveness lay in defying convention, in rejecting the accepted methods of motion picture making and establishing his own. Perhaps it was in his very formlessness that he found the one form he could sustain, and nurture, the one form that could, in turn, sustain and nurture him. Perhaps he was just a lucky Englishman who pulled a good picture out of his ass . –Anthony Quinn on Director J. Lee Thompson (Different Drummer considered deleting that final expletive, but decided to leave it in. It makes the whole quote.)

My more mature readers may remember this film or the best seller MacLean wrote, but it is well worth watching again. And younger movie lovers definitely need to watch this film. It compares favorably with other great WWII epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Longest Day (1962) and The Great Escape (1963).

Watch these film legends alive on screen and observe Hollywood when patriotism was alive and well. A must see for film aficionados of all ages.

–Kathy Borich
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Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

One of the iconic scenes in the Guns of Navarone takes place in the small Greek town where our saboteurs have taken refuge. When a group of German soldiers enter the square they take refuge there as several townspeople celebrate a wedding, hoping to blend in.

The music, dancing, and laughter are like Shakespeare’s comic relief in a tragedy. It just distracts us a bit to set us up for the next devastation, which, of course, will come pretty quickly for Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, and David Niven.

But let’s not worry about that for now. Instead we can feast on this Greek dish that is almost as good as this Italian girl’s favorite, lasagna. And actually, it might even be better and healthier, too, I have to admit. (Eggplant rather than pasta.)

Yes, it is a bit of work, but you will love the results.

Moussaka is to the Greek what Lasagna is to Italians. A rich tomato meat sauce layered with eggplant instead of pasta sheets, and topped with a thick layer of béchamel sauce, this traditional Greek recipe takes time to assemble – but it’s well worth the effort!

This is serious comfort food – a low carb one at that!

Greek Moussaka

All sorts of cheese can be used here, and to be most authentic, use kefalotyri. We used mizithra, which is becoming increasingly available in supermarkets. No need to search the globe for these cheeses, however, as a pecorino or any hard grating cheese will work fine.

Ingredients

· Meat sauce

· 2 pounds ground lamb or beef

· 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

· 1 onion, chopped

· 4 garlic cloves, chopped

· 1 teaspoon allspice

· 1 teaspoon cinnamon

· 1 teaspoon black pepper

· 1 tablespoon dried oregano

· 2 tablespoons tomato paste

· 1/2 cup red wine

· Zest of 1 lemon

· 2 tablespoons lemon juice, or more to taste

· Salt to taste

· Bechamel sauce

· 1 stick unsalted butter

· 1/2 cup flour

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 4 cups whole milk

· 4 egg yolks

· 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

· To assemble

· 3 large globe eggplants

· 1/2 cup salt

· 8 cups water

· 2-3 Yukon gold or other yellow potatoes

· 1 cup grated mizithra (or pecorino or Parmesan) cheese

· Extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Prepare the meat sauce:

1. Brown the ground meat, add onions:

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and brown the ground meat. By the way, the meat will brown best if you don't stir it.

Add the onions about halfway into the browning process. Sprinkle salt over the meat and onions.

2. Add the spices and tomato paste:

Once the meat is browned and the onions have softened, add the garlic, allspice, cinnamon, black pepper, oregano and tomato paste. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the wine and simmer:

Add the red wine and mix well. Bring the sauce to a simmer, reduce the heat, and continue to simmer gently, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat. Season with salt to taste.

4. Add the lemon zest and the lemon juice:

Mix well and taste. If the sauce needs more acidity, add more lemon juice.

Set the sauce aside.

Prepare the potatoes and eggplants:

1. Make the brine:

Mix the 1/2 cup salt with the 8 cups of water in a large pot or container. This will be the brine for the eggplants.

2. Prep the eggplants:

Slice the top and bottom off the eggplants. Cut thick strips of the skin off the eggplants to give them a striped appearance.

A little skin on the eggplant is good for texture, but leaving it all on makes the moussaka hard to cut later, and can add bitterness, which you don’t want. (Some moussaka recipes leave the skin on and have you slice the eggplants lengthwise, which is an option if you prefer.)

Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch rounds and drop them into the brine.

3. Brine the eggplants:

Let the eggplants sit in the brine 15-20 minutes, then remove them to a series of paper towels to dry.

Place a paper towel on the counter, layer some eggplant on it, then cover with more paper towels and repeat.

4. Peel, slice, and boil the potatoes:

As the eggplants are brining, peel and slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch rounds. Boil them in salted water for 5-8 minutes – you want them undercooked, but no longer crunchy. Drain and set aside.

5. Cook the eggplant rounds:

To cook the eggplant, broil or grill the rounds. You could also fry the eggplant rounds but they tend to absorb a lot of oil that way.

To grill the eggplant rounds, get a grill very hot and close the lid. Paint one side of the eggplant rounds with olive oil and grill 2-3 minutes. When they are done on one side, paint the other side with oil and flip. When the eggplants are nicely grilled, set aside.

To broil, line a broiling pan or roasting pan with aluminum foil. Paint with olive oil. Place the eggplant rounds on the foil and brush with olive oil. Broil for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned on one side, then flip them over and broil for a few minutes more. Set aside.

Prepare the béchamel:

Heat the milk:

Heat the milk in a medium saucepan on medium heat until steamy. Do not let simmer.

Make the roux:

Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has completely melted, slowly whisk in the flour. Let this roux simmer over medium-low heat for a few minutes. Do not let it get too dark.

Add the milk:

Little by little, pour the steamy milk into the roux, stirring constantly. It will set up and thicken dramatically at first, but keep adding milk and stirring; the sauce will loosen. Raise the heat to medium. Add the nutmeg and about a teaspoon of salt. Stir well.

Temper the eggs:

Put the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk to combine. Temper the eggs so they don’t scramble when you put them into the sauce. Using two hands, one with a whisk, the other with a ladle, slowly pour in a couple ladles of hot béchamel into the eggs, whisking all the time.

Slowly pour the egg mixture back into the béchamel while whisking. Keep the sauce on very low heat; do not let simmer or boil.

Finish the moussaka:

1. Layer the potatoes and eggplant in the dish:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Layer a casserole with the potatoes, overlapping slightly. Top the layer of potatoes with a layer of eggplant slices (use just half of the slices).

2. Continue layering:

Cover the layer of potatoes and eggplant with the meat sauce. Then add the remaining eggplant slices on top of the meat sauce.

3. Add cheese and béchamel:

Sprinkle half the cheese on top. Ladle the béchamel over everything in an even layer. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

4. Bake:

Bake at 350°F for 30-45 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned.

Let the moussaka cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Simply Recipes.com