They Who Dare Backdrop Blur
They Who Dare Poster

They Who Dare

In Greece during the war a small group of British commandoes and patriots land on an island with orders to attack two airfields from which the Luftwaffe is threatening allied forces in Egypt. The island is crawling with troops, and even moving by night the men soon run into trouble.

Top Cast

  • Dirk Bogarde

    Dirk Bogarde

    Lieutenant Graham

  • Denholm Elliott

    Denholm Elliott

    Sergeant Corcoran

  • Eric Pohlmann

    Eric Pohlmann

    Captain Papadapoulos

  • Akim Tamiroff

    Akim Tamiroff

    Captain George One

  • Harold Siddons

    Harold Siddons

    Lieutenant Stevens

  • William Russell

    William Russell

    Lieutenant Poole

  • Sam Kydd

    Sam Kydd

    Marine Boyd

  • Gérard Oury

    Gérard Oury

    Captain George Two

  • David Peel

    David Peel

    Sergeant Evans

Overview

In Greece during the war a small group of British commandoes and patriots land on an island with orders to attack two airfields from which the Luftwaffe is threatening allied forces in Egypt. The island is crawling with troops, and even moving by night the men soon run into trouble.

Rating

5.9 / 10
24 Reviews
1 Popular

2 Reviews

  • John Chard
    John Chard
    5 Jul 30, 2014

    The Colossus’ of 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 cinematograpy 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

  • CinemaSerf
    CinemaSerf
    6 Feb 26, 2023

    British forces in the Mediterranean are being constantly harried by Luftwaffe aircraft based on Rhodes. It falls to Dirk Bogarde ("Lt. Graham") to lead a small squad of British and Greek fighters whose job will be to infiltrate the defences of two air bases and reduce them - and their planes - to rubble, then get themselves back to the awaiting submarine of Eric Pohlmann's jovial "Capt. Papadapoulos". It has spells when it is quite exciting, but for the most part this is a rather slow-to-start and meandering adventure story that focusses way too much on the foibles of the characters rather than delivering a solid story. A decent cast - Denholm Elliott, Sam Kidd and Akim Tamiroff add little to neutralise the verbosity of the whole thing and the denouement didn't seem to quite make sense (or perhaps I just blinked?). It could easily lose twenty minutes of the preamble and focus more on the military and raiding aspects of the plot which I think would improve it greatly. As it is, Bogarde does enough to keep it moving - but only just.

Recommendations

Wolf Hound

Inspired by the real-life German special operations unit KG 200 that shot down, repaired, and flew Allied aircraft as Trojan horses, "Wolf Hound" takes place in 1944 German-occupied France and follows the daring exploits of Jewish-American fighter pilot Captain David Holden. Ambushed behind enemy lines, Holden must rescue a captured B-17 Flying Fortress crew, evade a ruthless enemy stalking him at every turn, and foil a plot that could completely alter the outcome of World War II.

Wolf Hound

6.5 2022