They Who Dare

World War II movie, of British production, which does not have anything that justifies the time one could possibly spare to see it, other than the great Dirk Bogarde starring, with the good British actor Denholm Elliott in a second role. The scenario is rather conventional (we have seen this stuff many times) and does not develop the characters and their relations as it could. It has also attempted to give a Greek aroma, in a very clumsy way: as there is not even one Greek actor among the cast the spoken Greek sound very strange (at least to someone who knows the language like me). Additionally, the portrait of the Greeks falls into a lot of stereotypes, which sometimes are offensive to these people, revealing more things about the script writer himself than the actual Greeks. I have given to this movie 4 out of 10.

They Who Dare is directed by Lewis Milestone and written by Robert Westerby. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Denholm Elliott, Akim Tamiroff, William Russell, Eric Pohlmann and Harold Siddons. Music is by Robert Gill and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.

It's "men on a mission" time as Special Commandos and some Greek partisans meet up on Rhodes to blow up two German airfields. And that's about it really, oh of course there's problems along the way such as questions of loyalty, hazards and set-backs such as minefields, and talking – lots of talking - as the men stand or sit around pondering the war and or - their own inadequacies etc. When the big action finale comes it is kind of worth the wait, but the performances are only adequate throughout and the script is lazily written to the point of tedium setting in. 5/10

This film will be of great interest to WW2 Aviation enthusiasts as it features several authentic Italian Savoia - Marchetti S.M. 79 three - motor bombers. These aircraft were provided by the Lebanese Air Force which was the last operator of the type.

I would make an educated guess that this film was shot on Cyprus as there is an abundance of British Army trucks and armoured cars modified and painted to resemble German vehicles. A Bristol Beaufighter aircraft can also be briefly glimpsed during the airfield attack sequence.

The special effects ,such as model aircraft being blown up, are not up to modern standards but they are no worse than other 1950s war movies such as "The Dambusters".

Not sure what I expected from this one. Dirk Bogarde is my favorite actor and I have had pleasant encounters with Milestone as well. Here the latter screws up on multiple occasions.

First off the cinematography is way too light and some of the shots are rather clumsy. The script could be faltered as well. And some of the acting, especially from the one playing a character who keeps singing this awful and quite annoying tune.

Mind you it's not bad. Bogarde's performance makes it worth while. But really if it hadn't been for him this would have been below mediocrity. It got a few strong moments and whenever Bogarde is on screen you nearly forget everything else that has been going on.

I will not recommend this but overall it was OK. I think the casting apartment did some horrible choices though.

It's the Second World War. Dirk Bogarde is sent on a mission to Rhodes to destroy two Axis airbases with a crew of British commandos and Greek partisans.

The copy of this movie that played on TCM today was in poor shape. Not only was it too dark to reveal much in the way of details, but the color balance on the Technicolor print it was drawn from -- or perhaps the telecine it was converted on -- was off; the dark-for-night scenes had gigantic swaths of blue, and the faces of the actors verged on orange. the cinematography by Wilkie Cooper looks like it was bleached into impressionism. It looks like it was drawn from a bad 16 mm. TV print. In addition, while there were many scenes shot on location in the Dodecanese, there were a tremendous number of process shots put together in such a way that there was no mistaking them.

It's a shame, because it's a talented director -- Lewis Milestone -- with actors worth looking at: Dirk Bogarde, Denholm Elliott, Akim Tamiroff, Gerard Oury, and Eric Pohlman head the cast list.

I think this movie is worth another attempt, but until I can see a copy drawn from senior 35 mm. elements, I cannot recommend this to anyway. If someone is aware of a better copy, I would like to know of it.