Kelly's Heroes - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Kelly's Heroes or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Kelly's Heroes

[willard]

Gutkowski (Richard Davalos) carried and used a Russian sniper rifle, a Mosin Nagant M91/30.

[michele]

George Savalas (Sergeant Mulligan) was the younger brother of Telly (Big Joe). They appeared together on Kojak (1973).

[tamara]

No date is provided for when this movie takes place, though according to several facts mentioned, a guess can be made: (1) In the opening scenes, Big Joe (Telly Savalas) and his men are trying to get into the city of Nancy, France, so they can get some well-earned rest, but the Germans were still holding the city. Historically, the city of Nancy was captured on September 15,, 1944, by the U.S. Third Army. (2) Captain Maitland (Hal Buckley) mentions he has to go to Paris to pick up a few things for the General. Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944.

[norma]

The German Tiger tank commander (Karl-Otto Alberty) appears to be a parody, both in appearance and manner of speaking, of Marlon Brando's portrayal of German Lieutenant Christian Diestl in The Young Lions (1958).

[jamie]

The noise made by electric motors of the Tigers' turrets was later used for the movements of the power lifters in Aliens (1986).

[lynn]

The Colt-Browning .30 caliber machine gun weighed thirty-one pounds. It's thus a matter of conjecture as to whether Crapgame's (Don Rickles') complaints about having to carry one of the weapons are valid or not.

[darrell]

Troy Kennedy Martin wrote two movies about gold heists, this movie and The Italian Job (1969).

[camila]

Clint Eastwood signed to do this movie mainly because his friend and favorite director, Don Siegel, was set to direct it. However, Siegel ran into post-production problems while finishing up Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) and had to withdraw from the project. Brian G. Hutton was then signed to direct. Eastwood, who had already signed a contract to do this movie, couldn't pull out.

[toni]

This movie was going to have a female role, but prior to filming, it was cut from the script. Ingrid Pitt, who was cast in the role (and had been in Where Eagles Dare (1968) with Clint Eastwood), revealed that she was "virtually climbing on-board the plane bound for Yugoslavia when word came through that my part had been cut."

[jeffrey]

Valued at sixteen million dollars, fourteen thousand gold bars equals about one thousand one hundred forty-three dollars per bar. At the then-current price of thirty-five dollars per troy ounce, the bars would have had to weigh only 32.6 ounces each, probably a gross understatement, even though the bars are clearly much smaller than the standard "Fort Knox" size. However, even assuming the weight is correct, fourteen thousand bars would weigh almost sixteen tons (not counting boxes, men, and equipment), well beyond the capacity of the truck they were using. Then again, fourteen thousand bars, at only twelve to a box, would require over one thousand one hundred boxes, seemingly a lot more than is in the pile. So maybe German Colonel Dankhopf (David Hurst) was wrong.

[wallace]

Approximately twenty minutes were cut from the movie by MGM and studio boss James T. Aubrey before theatrical release. MGM even changed the title of the movie. Originally, it was called "The Warriors", then, in post-production, it was changed to "Kelly's Warriors": and then to "Kelly's Heroes". Clint Eastwood mentioned in interviews that he was very disappointed about the way this movie was re-cut by MGM because many deleted scenes not only gave depth to the characters, but also made the movie much better. Some of the deleted scenes were shown on promotional stills and described in interviews with cast and crew for Cinema Retro's special edition article about this movie: Oddball (Donald Sutherland) and his crew pack up to go over the lines to meet up with Kelly (Clint Eastwood) and others while local village girls are running around half naked. The platoon encounters a group of German soldiers and naked girls swimming in a pool. While they wait for Oddball in the barn at night, Kelly and Big Joe (Telly Savalas) have a conversation about their disillusionment with the war and why Kelly was made a scapegoat for the attack that resulted in his demotion. Another scene was deleted from this part where the platoon decides they don't want to continue with the mission and Gutkowski (Richard Davalos) threatens Kelly at gunpoint, but Big Joe and Crapgame (Don Rickles) side with Kelly, and everything turns out okay. General Colt (Carroll O'Connor) is in bed with some women when he gets a call that Kelly and others have broken through the enemy lines. During the attack on the town, Production Designer Jon Barry had a cameo as a British airman hiding from the Germans. One promotional still shows Kelly finding a wounded German soldier amongst the ruined houses during the final town attack. Kelly, Oddball, and Big Joe discuss tactics while standing on an abandoned Tiger tank before the scene where they talk with the German tank commander. When Kelly and the platoon drive off at the end, a bunch of soldiers shout at them that they are headed in the wrong direction.

[nora]

Troy Kennedy-Martin wrote The Italian Job (1969), another movie about a gold heist.

[nicholas]

The blue "crosshair" shoulder patch indicates Kelly (Clint Eastwood) and his men are from the 35th Infantry Division. It's a National Guard division, comprised of guardsmen from Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas.

[marc]

Mike Curb, who wrote the lyrics to this movie's theme song, "Burning Bridges", served as Lieutenant Governor of California between 1978 and 1982.

[veronica]

Much like MASH (1970) (also with Donald Sutherland) and Catch-22 (1970), this is a commentary on the Vietnam War, despite being set in an earlier war.

[ken]

The three Tiger I tanks used were actually ex-Soviet Army T-34 tanks, converted in great detail by specialists of the Yugoslavian Army. They are not the same ones used in a previous movie, The Battle of Neretva (1969), which were much less well done. The care taken to make the T-34s look like Tiger tanks was notable, most period World War II movies used unmodified modern tanks as their vehicles, with minimal effort to change their appearances, often no more than painting the tanks with gray or yellow with distinctive German crosses. Oddball's (Donald Sutherland's) Shermans are Yugoslavian Army M4A3E4 Shermans (post-war U.S. upgraded to 76mm in original 75mm turret).

[ethel]

John Landis kept telling Donald Sutherland that he would one day be a movie director. Sutherland told him if that was ever to come true, that he would appear in all of his movies. Sutherland appeared in The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), and on a billboard in The Blues Brothers (1980), all directed by Landis.

[caroline]

This movie's Japanese souvenir booklet's synopsis of the movie ends as follows "What happens to The Warriors? Well, There's still a P-47 roaming the sky to have a voice in the matter."

[wesley]

Artillery Sergeant Mulligan (George Savalas) has a humorous name. In golf, a "mulligan" is a "do-over". A chance to repeat a bad shot. In this movie, Sergeant Mulligan is repeatedly berated for his inaccuracy.