Please note that my vote of 9/10 applies only to the 92-minutes version. The 107 minutes version I would rate as 5/10, or maybe 6/10 at the most.
The problem with the long version -- and the reason "They Who Dare" earned so many scathing and unenthusiastic reviews on its first release back in 1953 -- centers on inconsistencies and other defects in scriptwriter Robert Westerby's characterizations. Recognizing that these complaints were legitimate and that Dirk Bogarde's box office popularity was being undermined, the movie was withdrawn and expertly cut down to 92 minutes.
As far as I'm concerned, the cutdown concentrates on action, and as these sequences are directed with Lewis Milestone's usual bravura, I'm not going to quibble about a few little, trifling elements of confusion that I may have in following the plotting and the storyline.
The problem with the long version -- and the reason "They Who Dare" earned so many scathing and unenthusiastic reviews on its first release back in 1953 -- centers on inconsistencies and other defects in scriptwriter Robert Westerby's characterizations. Recognizing that these complaints were legitimate and that Dirk Bogarde's box office popularity was being undermined, the movie was withdrawn and expertly cut down to 92 minutes.
As far as I'm concerned, the cutdown concentrates on action, and as these sequences are directed with Lewis Milestone's usual bravura, I'm not going to quibble about a few little, trifling elements of confusion that I may have in following the plotting and the storyline.