The Chase - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Chase or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Chase

[sandra]

Although billed third in the cast, Robert Redford doesn't appear alongside any of his fellow actors until well over halfway into the film.

[beth]

Robert Duvall earned $30,000 for his performance in the film, his biggest paycheck at the time.

[alyssa]

Sam Spiegel wanted Peter O'Toole, who had signed a seven-year contract with Spiegel to get the part of T.E. Lawrence in Spiegel's Oscar-winning Lawrence of Arabia (1962), to play the part of Jake. O'Toole turned it down. He was furious that his contract with Spiegel prevented him from accepting the lead role in director David Lean's production of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago (1965) and thought the screenplay for this film was a "ghastly", "lifts-the-lid-off" potboiler akin to Grace Metalious' Peyton Place (1957). James Fox was signed to the role after he proved he could play a Texas accent.

[kristina]

John Hodiak played the role of Sheriff Calder in the original stage version.

[marc]

Jane Fonda and Robert Redford enjoyed working with each other. They had a lot in common, and Redford's humor helped Fonda relax on-set.

[melinda]

Sam Spiegel was quite fond of Marlon Brando, who had won his first Best Actor Oscar in the Spiegel-produced Best Picture winner On the Waterfront (1954), according to his biographer Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni. When casting Brando in this film, Spiegel was worried that Marlon, a motorcycle enthusiast, would wind up killing himself, like James Dean, in an accident. (Brando had badly lacerated his knee while biking before filming began.) Spiegel constantly queried Arthur Penn as to whether Brando had brought his motorcycle with him to filming. When Brando got wind of this, he had his motorcycle brought over to the set to play a joke on Spiegel, who quickly arrived at the shooting to see that Brando didn't ride it. When Spiegel found out it was all a joke, the normally taciturn producer laughed heartily.

[ruby]

British composer John Barry's first American movie score.

[caroline]

Producer Sam Spiegel had acquired the property on which this film was based in the 1950s and originally wanted Marlon Brando to play the role of Jason "Jake" Rogers and Marilyn Monroe to play his lover, Anna Reeves. By the time production began in 1965, however, Brando was too old to play the role of the son and took the part of Sheriff Calder instead. Brando was paid $750,000 and his production company, Pennebaker, was paid a fee of $130,000. (Brando's sister Jocelyn Brando also was cast in the small role of Mrs. Briggs.)

[gerald]

In the fight scene where Calder (Marlon Brando) gets beaten up, for extra realism the director instructed the other actors to punch Brando in extreme slow motion and actually connect with Brando's body. Due to the slow speed of the punches, Brando was not harmed at all. The scene was then processed at normal speed and the punches look as though they are causing serious damage to Brando.

[carl]

When Val Rogers comes to the station to talk with Sheriff Calder, he stands in front of the Sheriff's desk and idly picks up an item from the desk and handles it while talking. The item is a leather "sap" or "blackjack" which is a leather pouch, 8-12 inches long, filled with lead and sometimes a flexible steel rod. It's a bludgeoning weapon like a baton, but it's small enough to be concealed in a pocket. Although they are now prohibited by most police departments, some police uniforms still have special pockets for carrying them.

[lonnie]

Sam Spiegel told Jane Fonda he'd chosen Robert Redford because of his effect on women and the reaction of women in the studio offices.

[ethel]

In the early 1950s, Gary Cooper acquired the rights for the material, which would have teamed him with Montgomery Clift, but he could not arrange financing. He sold the rights to Leland Hayward and Anatole Litvak. Although that version of the film was not made, Sam Spiegel eventually filmed it in 1966, with Marlon Brando playing the role Cooper would have.