Critics praised "The Guns of Navarone", it being named the best picture of the year in "Film Daily’s" annual poll of critics and industry reporters in 1961. In recent decades, most prominent critics or publications give it positive reviews Paul V. Peckly of "The New York Herald Tribune" wrote, "Peck may seem at times a trifle wooden and his German accent too obviously American... but his not too introspective, somewhat baffled manner is manly and fitted to the role he plays.