Commando sur Rhodes

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

"They Who Dare", which Lewis Milestone directed in 1953, comes across as a kind of preamble for "The Guns of Navarone" and was handsomely shot on location. It deals with the exploits of a small group of British and Greek soldiers tasked with blowing up German air bases on Rhodes but is rather lacking in action; most of the time is spent on the journey to the targets thought when the fighting does start it is lively enough. This is Dirk Bogarde in handsome, dashing leading man mode rather than Bogarde the actor he was ultimately to become and others in the cast include Denholm Elliot and Akim Tamiroff, though they are both wasted. It's hardly comparable to Milestone's other war movies but it's far from being a right-off either.

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".

A SAS team is sent to Rhodes to sabotage enemies airfields. They bring along four locals (two guides and two officers) and they all get into a mighty mess.

Unfortunately, some of the drama seems contrived and suspenseful situations seem created to add a pep to an otherwise boring plot.

As in any decent war movie, don't expect everybody to survive.

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.