The Guns Of Navarone is one of the most famous and influential “men on a mission’ war movies.

As a sub-genre, it covers movies such as The Dam Busters, The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare (my personal favourite) and Inglorious Bastards. The set-up is usually: a mis-matched small group of soldiers are given a virtually impossible, and likely fatal, task behind enemy lines (which usually involves destroying weaponry or killing Germans) that will alter the course of the war. Most of them invariably don’t survive but ultimately they get the job done.

Here, the task is to take out the heavily fortified guns of the title on a Greek island. The team boasts a top-notch cast, including Gregory Peck and David Niven, and the poster design plays up on the star power.

Above are French (70s re-release) and Belgian versions, both of which I have sold.