Trivia / The Night of the Generals

• California Doubling: Averted, as the film is set mostly in Warsaw and was shot on location there and in surrounding Poland. In fact, it was one of the very first Western films to be shot behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
• Creator Backlash: Peter O'Toole was quite vocal about disliking the movie, complaining about Sam Spiegel's micromanaging the production (and his decision to pay O'Toole an insultingly small salary), the constant rewrites of the script, and playing a character he never fully understood. Omar Sharif also found the experience of playing a sympathetic Nazi character distasteful and only did the film due to a contractual obligation with Spiegel. Sharif was also quite shaken by the experience of several Warsaw natives mistaking him for a real Nazi, which overshadowed for him all other memories of the production.
• Fake Nationality: Several, as almost all of the Germans are played by British actors, although the most egregious example of the Egyptian Omar Sharif as Grau. There's also the French Pierre Mondy as Sergeant Kopatski.
• Playing Against Type: Donald Pleasence and Charles Gray were both best-known for playing villains at this point in their careers. While not necessarily heroic, their characters are both portrayed as principled anti-Nazis.
• Uncredited Role: Harry Andrews is uncredited for his appearance as General Von Stulpnagel, the military governor of France.
• Wag the Director: By all accounts, Sam Spiegel micromanaged the production to the degree of ordering constant script rewrites and overruling director Anatole Litvak on almost every issue - on one occasion, he interrupted the filming of a scene to reposition the camera, before the mortified director and a flabbergasted cast and crew. Peter O'Toole swore he would never work with Spiegel again after watching his treatment of Litvak.
• What Could Have Been: Marlon Brando turned down the lead role. Dirk Bogarde was Anatole Litvak's first choice to play Major Grau.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: French novelist Joseph Kessel wrote the original shooting script which closely followed Kirst's novel, with Paul Dehn doing some rewrites to streamline the story structure. Unfortunately, Spiegel disliked their script and, when Kessel and Dehn couldn't deliver the alterations he wanted, brought in Gore Vidal to rework the material. Vidal exceeded his brief by rewriting the entire screenplay from scratch, resulting in Spiegel firing Vidal.^note Spiegel reportedly wound up using much of Vidal's script anyway, but refused to acknowledge his contribution or grant him a screen credit. As filming began, Spiegel hired playwright Robert Anderson for last minute script doctoring, though it's unclear what his contributions were. Ultimately only Kessel and Dehn received credit, and it's debatable how much of the finished film they actually wrote.

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