Force 10 from Navarone

Force 10 from Navarone is a 1978 war film loosely based on Alistair MacLean's 1968 novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone. The parts of Mallory and Miller are played by Robert Shaw (who died before the film was released), and Edward Fox, succeeding in the roles originally portrayed by Gregory Peck and David Niven. It was directed by Guy Hamilton and also stars Harrison Ford, Carl Weathers, Barbara Bach, Franco Nero (in a "plastic surgery" role previously played by Tutte Lemkow), and Richard Kiel. The film gets its title from the Alistair MacLean book of the same name, but bears so little resemblance to the novel that MacLean loosely adapted part of the screenplay into his 1982 book Partisans. Plot In 1943, Major Keith Mallory and Sergeant Donovan "Dusty" Miller from British Commandos are sent to find and eliminate Nicolai, a German spy who previously betrayed the Navarone mission to the Germans and is now believed to have successfully infiltrated the Yugoslav Partisans as "Captain Lescovar". To get to Yugoslavia, the two men pair with "Force 10", an American sabotage unit led by US Army Rangers Lieutenant Colonel Mike Barnsby and steal a bomber. They are joined by Weaver, a Medical Corps sergeant arrested by the Military Police, and escape, only to be shot down by the Luftwaffe. Only Barnsby, Mallory, Miller, Weaver, and Lieutenant Doug Reynolds (Angus MacInnes) escape the crippled plane. The survivors come upon a band of men they believe to be partisans but are later revealed as collaborationist Chetniks led by Captain Drazak. Taken prisoner, they tell the German commander in control of the area, Major Schroeder, that they are deserters. To keep Schroeder from opening Miller's explosives suitcase, Mallory claims it contains the new drug "penicillin" which will spoil if exposed. The next morning the prisoners are told that Schroeder has opened the case, finding it full of firewood. They improvise an excuse, "admitting" they buried the samples. Schroeder sends Barnsby and Mallory to retrieve them under the guard of his concubine Maritza and three soldiers. Miller, Weaver, and Reynolds are left in camp.