The Guns of Navarone(1961) The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 epic adventure war film directed by J. Lee Thompson. The screenplay by producer Carl Foreman was based on Alistair MacLean's 1957 novel of the same name. The film stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, James Darren and Richard Harris. The book and the film share the same basic plot: the efforts of an Allied commando unit to destroy a seemingly impregnable German