Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

MartinHafer Dirk Bogarde plays the leader of this group of commandos. Their mission is to split into two groups and simultaneously destroy two airbases in Axis controlled Greece. The immediacy and importance of the mission isn't so obvious in this one and most of the commandos are rather faceless characters.Sometimes movies don't age well for a variety of reasons. In the case of "They Who Dare", the problem is that less than a decade after this film debuted, a very similar yet much, much better movie came out and far surpassed it. So, if today you watch the film, you're very likely to think "Wow....THE GUNS OF NAVARONE sure did this sort of thing better!"...and you'd be correct. Both films are about an international group of commandos who are secreted onto a Greek island to disrupt the Axis. With Navarone, the objective were those freakin' big guns. Here with "They Who Dare" it's an attack on two airbases. The latter film is better mostly because it has a better cast, more interesting script and a nice Hollywood polish this one lacks. Now it's not a bad film...but it certainly isn't close to the quality of the latter film.By the way, one way this film differed greatly was that once the guns were blown up, the British Navy arrived and rescued the heroes. However, in this Bogarde film, the mission is completed and then they have to work their way OUT of Greece...kind of on their own! And, this makes up a substantial portion of the film...which also makes the film run on way too long.

Spikeopath 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

Martin Bradley "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.

Robert J. Maxwell I usually enjoy movies like this -- a commando raid against two German and Italian airfields on Rhodes, shot in color in a bold and picturesque setting -- but, man, this is one sluggish story. The Brits have produced some of the best war movies committed to celluloid but this isn't one of them.It's a nice team too -- Dirk Bogarde, Denhold Elliott, directed by Lewis Milestone. And you aren't likely to see period Italian warplanes like this very often.If it begins with a torpid scene in a Cairo nightclub, well, that's alright. One expects it to pick up its pace as the story unfolds. The problem is that it never does.Half a dozen men -- a British unit with two Greek guides -- are landed by submarine on the coast of Rhodes. We get to know the sub's Greek captain. And it's not just a perfunctory acquaintance, although he has practically nothing more to do with the mission. (Compare the submarine scenes in "The Man Who Never Was.") Lots of pointless joshing and cartoon drawing.On Rhodes there are moments of tension, recalling some incidents in the later "The Guns of Navarone," but for the most part we see the men stumbling along rocky trails, avoiding Italian patrols, sneaking away to visit relatives in nearby villages, carefully treading through mine fields, sitting about in caves and discussing the situation. There is some tension but very little action.Few of the scenes are artful or suspenseful. The airfields are blown up but they never seem like critical targets. A few fewer Italian bombers to attack the British in North Africa; a couple of airfields that are easy repaired. This isn't the Guns of Navarone which threaten the evacuation of troops from the Greek islands. It's not a factory in Norway manufacturing heavy water for an atomic bomb. There are two of Milestone's signature shots (panning across the faces of men about to attack) but the effort hardly seems worth it.Overall, a surprising and colorless disappointment from sources that had done better, and would do better in the future.