Italian name, played a Greek woman in The Guns Of Navarone… all very exotic except that Gia was actually born in Liverpool, to a Sicilian father and Irish mother, with the family name of Scoglio. But nobody really cares what she was called, because:
And in the Navarone movie, where she’s exposed [sic] as a traitor:
Speaking of exposure:
It didn’t end well for our girl; she was a victim of Teh Booze And Drogges, and she died of an overdose thereof at age 38.
What a waste.
I still recall how shocking it was in The Guns of Navarone when the cute, innocent looking Gia Scala was revealed to be the traitor. Ripping the shirt off her back to reveal that she hadn’t been tortured as she claimed and then summarily executing her seemed cold for a film in 1961. Having Irene Pappas, the local resistance leader, be the executioner made it more interesting yet.
What a great movie. Even the cheesy, by today’s standards, model effects can’t spoil it’s impact. It helps to remember that The Guns of Navarone is closer in time to A Trip to the Moon (1902), effects-wise, than it is to 2026.