What You Probably Didn't Know About The Dirty Dozen (1967)

 

Hey everyone and welcome to a brand new What You Probably Didn't Know About. Been quite awhile since I've done one of these but none the less let's get started.

1. It was MGM's biggest moneymaker of 1967.

2. Most of the events in the movie were taken from the novel's final parts.

3. At first it was a real pain to blow up the fake chateau. Construction on the thing was so great that the filmmakers would've needed about seventy tons of explosives to achieve the effect they were looking for. So instead of doing that a section was rebuilt from cork and plastic.

4. John Wayne was the original chose to play Major John Reisman, but he later declined. There's two stories as to way he didn't take the part. It's either A) He disapproved of the original script in which Reisman was having an affair with a married woman who's husband is fighting overseas, or it's B) He turned the down the film because he didn't want to work in the UK because around this time his third wife Pilar was due to give birth in February of 1966.

5. Cast members Clint Walker, George Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown would later reunite for the 1998 film Small Soldiers.

6. It was one of the first Hollywood movies to show American soldiers deliberately committing war crimes.

7. According to Guinness The Dirty Dozen was the top money maker of 67 in both the U.S. and Canada.

8. The opening credits don't appear until were around I think 12 minutes into the movie. Now today that's no big deal but back in 1967 that was considered rather weird.

9. Many of the actors were considered too old to play WWII soldiers.

10. In the Spain version of the movie Franko's name was changed to Franchi. The reason for it was at the time of the movie's release Spain's ruler was Francisco Franco.

11. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali once visited the set of the movie. The reason he was in England at the time of filming was because he had a title bout with Brian London. He hung out with his buddy Jim Brown and took photos with the cast.

12. During a TCM short about the filming of the movie it was revealed that the working title for it was "Operation Dirty Dozen".

13. Donald Sutherland was actually a late casting decision. He replaced an actor who thought the role was beneath him.

14. Lee Marvin had high praise for the cast. He said that "everyone was ideally cast and even when they ad-libbed a scene, invariably it was in character, so all it could do was help the film".

15. Seven of the cast members severed in World War II. Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan were both in the Marines, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, and George Kennedy were all in the Army, Clint Walker was a Merchant Marine, and Ernest Borgnine was in the Navy.

Okay, that's going to do it for me. Come back on Saturday, Apr 24th for my review of Mortal Kombat (2021). Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.