5/5 A Delight
  by Larry Grant
A great war tme movie with two of the best
actors, Peck and Moore.

4/5 Old geezers win the war with stiff upper lip
  by Mr. Stephen Kennedy (Doha, Qatar)
This 1980 movie seemed to sit in between two generations of styles of war movie, and as a result seems to have fallen through the cracks of communal memory for many. It's a shame, as it's a decent movie, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously - but gripping enough to represent the factual story it depicts, and of course has a hugely entertaining cast clearly having a ball.
During WW II, an aging group of ex Boer War veterans, now forming a territorial style home guard in India known as the Calcutta Light Horse, are roped into action in a piece of skullduggery and sabotage on a German vessel in which has become a thorn in the side of the Royal Navy. Unfortunately, it is in Goa, a neutral Portuguese port, and no regular military mission can be mounted, hence our aging heroes for whom the British government can maintain plausible deniability, spring into action.
Gregory Peck and Roger Moore are the military espionage string pullers who lead the operation, David Niven, Trevor Howard and a host of British character actors play the Calcutta Light Horse, and Patrick Macnee and Barbara Kellerman round out the stellar cast in other roles.
It's old fashioned movie making, Boys Own adventure style, with the pace and script not short on humor, but it's a serious war movie too, which relies more on the build up and background than a climax, which may be disappointing in the action stakes to a modern movie audience. To be honest, most of the fun is in watching these actors on the screen together for one more time, before the 80's blockbusters thrust a new generation of actors and movie styles into the limelight.
John Glenn, veteran editor of many Bond movies, proficiently pieces together the action scenes to maximize tension, while experienced director Andrew McLaglen tries to walk a tightrope between historical re-enactment and big starring blockbuster... he makes a pretty good stab at it, but perhaps the end result may seem somewhat compromised for trying to keep a foot so firmly in both camps. Certainly the cinematography is uninspired workmanlike fare, and the costumes say more about 1980 than they do about 1943.
Don't nitpick though, it's good fun, with a cracking cast - I recommend it for an undemanding watch. Solid proponents of the MTV generation of movie making might want to stay clear.


3/5 Sea Fair
  by EddieLove (NYC, USA)
This beloved WWII saga is fairly irresistible, even if it's never quit as good as you want it to be. The first half is some flavorful, if slow moving, cloak-and-dagger spy stuff in wartime India. Then we get to the Sea Wolves tale of golden oldies doing their part for the war effort, and the tone becomes agreeably rousing.

Peck tries, and he's likable if simply not convincing. Always lackadaisical Moore isn't helped by his character being so foolish. For the final scenes you're on the edge of your seat, not just in suspense, but as you worry about frail David Niven taking a fall.

Not a classic, but fun.

5/5 They showed what old is all about
  by Kirk H. Woodroof (Camp spiecher Iraq)
Okay, so maybe these men were a bit older than the average troop, They may have some difficulty performing a Physicle training test. But they sure as hell got the job done, and that reader is what old is about.

3/5 How would you like to blow up two or three enemy ships in a neutral harbor?
  by Roberto Frangie (Leon, Gto. Mexico)
The film opens with incredibly accurate information that Forty-six freighters were sunk by the German submarines in the Indian Ocean in the past few weeks... The U-boats know exactly where and when to strike...

On one hand, we also know that the Portuguese authorities dismantled the ships' radios when they gave them permission to stay there... On the other, if Radio Monitoring is right, and the transmitter is actually in the harbor, it must be on a ship...

Not being able to break the code, the British Intelligence has to find out from where the information to those U-boats originates... To find whoever heads the spy ring, and to get rid of the transmitter without forgetting to violate Portugal's neutrality...

Now if a British Commando cannot violate Goa's neutral status, they might have to turn to amateurs... The Light Horse has not been in action as a unit since the Boer War in 1900... If they were caught, it might be taken as a drunken escapade... We are speaking about ex-soldiers on holiday, stealing a river ferry, sailing it the whole way round India from Calcutta to Cochin... and then heading for the neutral port of Mormugoa, Portuguese colony...

In that port, at anchor is a German ship, the Ehrenfels... Their job is to seize that ship, or sink her where she is... Also in that port are two other German ships so if they can knock them off at the same time, so much the better...

As you can see it is a crucial operation where many allied lives might be saved...

David Niven is the only man with any experience at sea...Charlie Wilton will remain aboard to nurse the engine of the old tub... Trevor Howard will have his only chance to settle accounts for his boy killed in Burma... Roger Moore has to deal with some spies... Peck has to lead the whole suicide adventure...

The film moves along beautifully, reaching an exciting and tense climax... Don't miss it!