Guns of Navarone

Guns of Navarone (1961)

6 corrected entries

(11 votes)

Corrected entry: When Miller exposes the traitor, he uses the expression "Q.E.D.". This is a short form of the Latin saying "Quod erat demonstrandum", which means (approximately) "which was to be proven".

Correction: This is absolutely not trivia. It is like explaining that when someone says 8.00 a.m. they are using an abbreviation for ante meridian, meaning before noon.

Corrected entry: When Gregory Peck and Anthony Quayle are piloting the boat through the storm, they're talking about the other team members. Peck says "I think our friend Baker has some explaining to do." The actor who played the "Butcher of Barcelona" was Stanley Baker, while his character's last name in the movie was Brown.

JohnLHolmes

Correction: The "friend Baker" referred to is not the "team member, " but the "Major Baker" in command of the British base at which the laundry-boy Nickolai was caught eavesdropping on the team while planning the operation. Major Baker at first refused to hold Nickolai incommunicado for a week, until threatened by Major Franklin (Quayle). Because the Captain of the Nazi boat that intercepted "the team's" boat seemed to know its mission, both Quayle's and Pecks suspected that Major Baker - cynically "their friend" - had not fulfilled his promise to sequester Nickolai, after the team departed, and, thereby, Nickolai had disclosed the team's presence and objective to a Nazi contact.

Corrected entry: It is typical for English-speaking actors trying to speak German, but still noticeable: With his thick accent, speech rhythm and choice of words in his 'perfect German' ("Meine Uhr muß zu langsam gehen" - 'My watch must be going too slow'; in German you would say:"Meine Uhr geht wohl nach"), Mallory would have had his crew caught much faster than he could say 'Hey.'

Correction: If you're referring to scene where he answers the captured field phone, that's the point of the scene. The German he's talking to recognizes the fake accent and poor grammar and sounds the alarm.

Corrected entry: When the girl is exposed as a traitor to the group and she is held by Andrea (Anthony Quinn)the first shot is one where Andrea has a chest full of medal ribbons, however when the close up appears there are no medals.

Correction: The only badge/ medal/ribbon visible at any time on the captured German uniform, worn by Anthony Quinn, is the German eagle clutching a swastika, seen on the right side of his tunic.

Dennis Gannon

Corrected entry: In the scene near the beginning of the movie, just after the team gets to the top of the cliff, the German soldiers are put on alert and head out to the cliff. As they leave the compound, one of the German trucks proudly displays the "Dodge" name on the tailgate. An American vehicle with German decals.

Correction: It could be captured equipment, or pre-war stock.

Corrected entry: Near the end of the movie Maria says to Andrea "now you will go back to Crete" you hear him say "yes", but his lips don't move.

Correction: Try saying the word "Yes", you will find that your lips do not move when you say it.

His lips are firmly closed.

Plot hole: The huge guns are set high up on a cliff face facing out to sea and it is obvious that they cannot be depressed to fire at a downward angle - the massive gun carriages set on rails would prevent that happening. They cannot be elevated to fire at an upward angle, too, because they fit pretty snugly in the hole cut into the cliff face to accommodate them. This means that their maximum and minimum ranges would be quite close together, covering a strip of maybe a few hundred metres either side. Given that the sea is completely open on the side of the island they are protecting, why don't the ships targeted by the guns while passing the island simply sail inside or outside of the narrow stretch of sea the guns can hit?

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The guns are firing across a strait. A strait is a "narrow passage." Since the targets must appear at a limited range, the guns only need a limited elevation angle.

Noman

Watch the film again. The guns are facing the open sea. There is no land visible anywhere behind the ships. If that's a strait, it's a very, very wide one.

The mission given says the guns are guarding a strait. The last shot of the six destroyers shows land behind them on the opposite side of the strait.

Noman

Other summaries explain that the strait is only deep enough for the ships at the place which matches the guns' range. So ships could not take advantage of further away or closer in.

Then what are the dark shapes rising out of the sea on the far side of the ships. If they are not islands, what are they?

Noman

Suggested correction: That the gun carriages are supposedly set on rails is not correct. In the novel template, as well as in the film, it is shown that the guns were installed on turntables. And as for their variable angles of fire - it could be due to (fictional) modifications.

Daniel4646

More mistakes in Guns of Navarone

Major Franklin: Pappadimos, have you got your silencer?
Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos: Yes.
Major Franklin: Then use it. Shoot the laundry boy.
Maj. Baker: Are you crazy?
Major Franklin: And if the Major gets in your way, shoot him too. That's an order.

More quotes from Guns of Navarone

Trivia: Anthony Quinn was so taken with Rhodes, the location for the movie, that he decided to buy some land there. Particularly a bay formerly known as Vagies Bay, which is still called Anthony Quinn Bay.

More trivia for Guns of Navarone

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.