SONS OF GUNS: Part One

THE SECRET INVASION (1964: Dir. Roger Corman)

In Hollywood there are often individual films that initiate a subsequent cycle of copycats. The Guns of Navarone (1961) was the first film of the Sixties to inaugurate a series of similar high concept action spectacles. Its forerunners in the previous decade such as The Cockleshell Heroes (1955) and Ice Cold In Alex (1958) were mildly popular "impossible mission movies" but didn't catch on with a wider public, content to enjoy the new home comforts of television. Producer Carl Foreman (The Bridge on the River Kwai)  recognized this, so when he purchased the adaptation rights to Navarone from its author Alistair MacLean, he set about creating a pure Boy's Own adventure by combining the box-office star power of Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn, with colourful CinemaScope WWII action and intrigue on a scale never before attempted. It became the second biggest hit of the year, with the expected result of encouraging others to follow suit, the first being Roger Corman's The Secret Invasion, a low budget independent production from the notoriously frugal filmmaker. By detailing the mission of a commando group made up of criminals and psychopaths sent behind enemy lines, Corman envisioned the prototype for such future hits as The Dirty Dozen (1967) and The Devil's Brigade (1968). Sort of a " Dirty Half-dozen", and written by regular Corman collaborator R. Wright Campbell under the more evocative title of The Dubious Patriots, it featured a parsimoniously chosen cast of inexpensive yet familiar faces including former matinee idol Stewart Granger, middle-aged Mickey Rooney, Italian Neo-Realist star Raf Vallone, TV pretty boy Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, and Rat Pack alumnus Henry Silva. Following the exotic Nazi occupied country locations established by Navarone's Greek setting, Corman chose the charming Yugoslavian port city of Dubrovnik as his locale, making sure to maximize production value with stunning widescreen panoramas that serve to offset the story's potent violence and tragic pessimism. As an avowed liberal leaning exploitation filmmaker, Corman's films are always representative of his personal and political values. The Secret Invasion, made during early American troop build-ups in Vietnam, was his profitable yet unsparing anti-war statement about sacrifice and rebellion in a time of dangerous cold war brinkmanship.In my opinion, it's his most mature and underrated film. DVD & BLU-RAY