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Trivia / The Longest Day

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  • Acting for Two: In the French dub, Duncan Elliott voiced both the downed RAF pilot and Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay.
  • Actor-Shared Background:
    • As World War II ended less than twenty years before the movie came out, a number of cast members were actual veterans.
      • Richard Todd, who plays Major John Howard of the British Airborne, was himself a British paratroop officer during the war and actually took part in the battle to capture the Pegasus Bridge, as the second in command of the second wave who landed to reinforce Howard — in fact, he was initially approached to play himself in the film. Todd opted instead to play Howard, remarking that he's now become big enough star to play someone more important. Lt. Todd himself was played by Patrick Jordan, who was uncredited.
      • As a 22-year-old private, Joseph Lowe landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day with the Second Ranger Battalion and scaled the cliffs at Point-Du-Hoc. He scaled those 100-foot cliffs all over again, for the cameras, some 17 years later.
      • Donald Houston, who has one scene as an RAF pilot, actually was in the RAF during World War II.
      • Eddie Albert, who played Colonel Thompson, was a World War II veteran, but he served in the Pacific, not in Europe.
      • Hans Christian Blech (Werner Pluskat) was a German army veteran, although he fought on the Eastern front, not in the West.
      • Gert Fröbe, who had a couple brief but memorable scenes as "Sergeant Kaffeekanne" (literally "Coffee Can") also served in the German army towards the end of the war.
    • Bourvil was a native of Normandy, and played the Resistance-affiliated mayor of the Norman town of Colleville.
  • All-Star Cast: Some posters of the film listed up to 43 international stars, which was quite unheard of in a movie at the time, not even counting some future stars.
  • Backed by the Pentagon: About 23,000(!) real US, British, and French soldiers were used as extras in the movie. They also rented two Messerschmitts from the Spanish air force and four Spitfires from the Belgian air force.
  • The Danza:
    • Sort of. Gen. James Gavin, played by Robert Ryan, was actually born James Ryan, but put up for adoption at age two, and adopted by Martin and Mary Gavin at age seven.
    • Richard Burton plays Richard Campbell.
  • California Doubling:
    • Some Normandy beaches scenes were filmed... in Corsica.
    • The Ouistreham battle scene was actually filmed at Port-en-Bessin a few kilometers away from the actual Ouistreham.
  • Dawson Casting:
    • John Wayne as Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort. The real Benjamin Vandervoort was 12 years younger than Wayne, and on D-Day, he had been just 27, while Wayne was 54 when the movie was filmed (he was ten years older than Vandervoort).
    • At 52, Robert Ryan was 15 years older than General James M. Gavin had been.
    • Richard Burton said he felt that both he and Donald Houston were too old to play RAF pilots. During his national service in the RAF, he never saw a pilot older than 30.
  • Deleted Role: Dewey Martin, whose character was named Lt. Wilder, was deleted from the final cut.
  • Fake Irish: Sean Connery has a small part as Private Flanagan.
  • Hostility on the Set:
    • John Wayne (a very conservative Republican) and Robert Ryan (a very liberal Democrat) had managed to put their political differences aside when they made Flying Leathernecks, but they did not get along at all while making this film.
    • Darryl F. Zanuck and Cornelius Ryan collaborated on the screenplay, even though they hated each other almost from the first time they met. It was up to producer Elmo Williams to mediate between the two and keep the peace.
  • Money, Dear Boy: This was one of several high-profile projects which John Wayne took in the wake of the extremely expensive The Alamo. He had used his own funds to help finance the project, and he was in desperate need of a quick payday.
    • He also insisted on being paid $250,000 to appear when all the other stars had accepted $25,000.
  • Playing Against Type: Red Buttons usually played goofy comic-relief or funny hero types. Here, while there's some humor with him, his main scene is one of the film's most horrific parts (the American parachutist who gets stuck on a bell tower while his comrades get gunned down by the Germans either in the air or just upon landing, and he's basically Forced to Watch).
  • Production Posse: The production team led by Darryl F. Zanuck as well as director Ken Annakin worked on another Twentieth Century Fox Epic Movie right after this film, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, and some actors carried over from it, including Gert Fröbe, Stuart Whitman and Irina Demick (then-girlfriend of Zanuck).
  • Same Language Dub: While set designer Henry Grace resembled a middle-aged Dwight D. Eisenhower enough that he was cast as Ike after initial plans to have the former President play himself were scuttled due to attempts to hide the fact that Eisenhower was in his early 70s by then with makeup weren't working; Grace sounded very different from Ike, resulting in voice actor Allen Swift to dub the voice using an Eisenhower impression.
  • Screwed by the Network: Averted - Fox was planning on just doing a quick wide release to earn some cash they needed to offset their pre-release losses from Cleopatra. Darryl Zanuck threatened to bring The Longest Day to Warner Bros. if they didn't do a proper roadshow release, and Fox had to comply (it still was the box office hit the studio needed in the end).
  • Throw It In!: While clearing a section of the Normandy beach near Pointe du Hoc, the film crew found a tank used in the invasion. They cleaned it up and used it for the British Invasion scenes.
  • Uncredited Role: Victor Maddern as the camp cook.
    • Patrick Jordan played Lt. Richard Todd of the British Airborne, since Todd, who became a famous actor after the war, was playing Major John Howard instead. They have a scene where they exchange an inside joke about how "paras are always late." (During the war, Todd served with the Parachute Regiment and was the second in command of the 1st Company, 7th Parachute Battalion, who arrived to reinforce Howard's glider troops who made the first landings.).
  • Wag the Director: As part of John Wayne's contract, in addition to his high fee, he insisted on getting separate billing. The usual practice in film credits for this type of situation is to start off with "Starring John Wayne and the other actors; however, the credits begin with "starring the other actors... and John Wayne". Wayne's name appears last on the credits, while still meeting the separate billing clause of his contract.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Christopher Lee, who fought in the War as an intelligence officer with the RAF, auditioned for any role he could get. He was turned down because the producers felt he didn't look like a military officer, given that intelligence would have wanted recruits who didn't look like officers.
    • This was made just after Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency and the producers very nearly cast Eisenhower to play himself. They abandoned the idea because he was too old, though.
    • John Wayne's role was originally offered to Charlton Heston. William Holden was offered the role, but he turned it down, as he was exhausted after finishing Satan Never Sleeps, The Counterfeit Traitor and The Lion.
    • Alec Guinness was sought for a cameo.
    • The part of the British padre was first offered to Dirk Bogarde, who turned it down.
    • Brigitte Bardot and Marina Vlady turned down the role of Janine Boitard.

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