Trivia / Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

• Actor-Shared Background: Aside from the shared nationalities between the race's competitors and their actors, Alberto Sordi was a devoutly Catholic, and so is his character, Emilio Ponticelli.
• All-Star Cast: A genuine who's-who of international stars, comedians, and character actors of the time; including Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, James Fox, Alberto Sordi, Robert Morley, Gert Fröbe, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Red Skelton, Terry-Thomas, Yujiro Ishihara, Sam Wanamaker, Tony Hancock and Benny Hill.
• Dueling Works: With The Great Race, which was released a month afterward by Warner Bros. Both pictures are a Slapstick Epic Movie about a long distance race in the immediate pre-World War I days, and both boast some similar character archetypes. Magnificent Men ended up far more commercially and critically successful.
• Fake Nationality: Spectacularly averted with the aviators, who are all played by actors matching their nationality, which makes the National Stereotypes even funnier. Otherwise:
  • While both are German, Oberst von Holstein, the Prussian, is played by Gert Fröbe, a Saxon who speaks with an undisguisable Saxon accent. This added another layer of funny in Germany when the film was released.
  • British actress Zena Marshall (who notably played Miss Taro in the first James Bond film, Dr. No) as the Italian countess Sophia Ponticelli.
  • British actor Davy Kaye as the French Jean, Pierre Dubois' chief mechanic and partner-in-crime for his pranks.
  • French actress Irina Demick as Marlene (German), Ingrid (Swedish) and Betty (British). The other women she plays as a Running Gag are all French, on the other hand.
  • British actor Eric Barker as the French postman who brings news of the race to Pierre Dubois.
• Hostility on the Set: A troublesome on-set distraction occurred when the two lead actors, Stuart Whitman and Sarah Miles, fell out early in the production. Director Ken Annakin commented that it began with an ill-timed pass by Whitman. (Whitman was married at the time, although he would divorce in 1966.) Miles "hated his guts" and rarely deigned to speak to him afterward unless the interaction was required by the script. Annakin employed a variety of manipulations to ensure the production still proceeded smoothly. The stars made peace with each other after on-set filming concluded; their interactions were civil during final re-takes of scenes and voice-overs.
  • Averted (And How!) by the relationship between Gert Fröbe and Jean-Pierre Cassel. Frobe accidentally addressed Cassel in German after an early scene, but Cassel grinned, replied in pretty fair German, and cheekily asked Frobe for German lessons. Frobe, realising he'd dodged a bullet, agreed, and the two got on famously for the rest of the film.
• Production Posse: The production team led by Darryl F. Zanuck as well as director Ken Annakin worked on another Epic Movie right before this film, The Longest Day, and some actors carried over from it, including Gert Fröbe, Stuart Whitman and Irina Demick (then-girlfriend of Zanuck).
• Uncredited Role:
  • Gerald Campion and Nicholas Smith as firemen.
  • Ronnie Stevens as a reporter.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Dick Van Dyke was the original choice for Orvil Newton.
  • In 1964, it was announced that Britt Ekland would be joining the cast, but she is not in this movie.
• Working Title: Flying Crazy.

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