The Dirty Dozen - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[ray]

At a cocktail function in London, Lee Marvin got drunk and propositioned an old lady in the most vulgar manner possible. So slurred was his speech that she asked him to repeat it and he obliged. The woman turned out to be Sean Connery's aunt, and Connery was on his way to Marvin's general direction when producer Kenneth Hyman intervened. "Don't hit him in the face, Sean", he begged, "He's got his close-ups tomorrow". Fortunately, Connery saw the funny side and roared with laughter. "You fucking producers", he said as he left.

[clayton]

One scene required Lee Marvin to drive an armored truck with Charles Bronson riding shotgun. With cameras poised, Marvin was a no-show. He was eventually tracked down to a pub in Belgravia and was hauled into a car and taken to the studio, where coffee was poured down his throat. When on arrival he fell out of the car, Bronson flipped, "I'm going to fucking kill you, Lee".

[jesus]

The film's financial success allowed Robert Aldrich to buy his own film studio, which opened in August 1968. His plan was to produce up to 16 films there over the next five years, but the failure of his first two productions, The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) and The Killing of Sister George (1968), scuttled his hopes. He was soon forced into a four-picture deal with ABC-Palomar. His pictures under that contract were not hits either. The director never regained the box office status he had with this film or quite the critical acclaim he enjoyed in the 1950s, although he did enjoy something of a comeback with The Longest Yard (1974).

[frances]

Many of the actors were considered too old to play World War II soldiers.

[janice]

In the novel, the black character's name is Napoleon White. It was changed to Robert Jefferson for the movie at some point, although in the original trailer, he's called Napoleon Jefferson.

[carl]

Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas appeared in Violent City (1970).

[lena]

Lee Marvin and George Kennedy would later reunite in The Delta Force (1986).

[violet]

The film changes quite a few major points from source novel. The novel is 95 percent training, and the actual mission is mentioned only in the last few pages, as the official report. Many character names and attributes are also changed. Posey, for instance, is a full-blooded native American (and a giant like Clint Walker) and is impossible to disguise, so his job is set according to that. Jefferson is called Napoleon White in the novel, and he's a Lieutenant. One night, he's harassed in a bar by some drunk soldiers, and is beaten and raped by them afterwards, and he ends up killing them (hence his sentence of death). Maggot is pretty much the same racist and psychopath, except in the novel he's much worse. And Corporal Morgan is a hangman, a character absolutely hated by each one of the characters including Reisman, and he's finally excluded from the mission. The biggest change, though, is one point that would have changed the movie's tone radically: In the book, Franco doesn't believe he'll be pardoned, and tries to surrender to the Germans, and is therefore shot by Sergeant Bowren.

[claude]

Features John Cassavetes's only Oscar nominated acting performance. He lost to his co-star in this film, George Kennedy, in Cool Hand Luke.

[gabriel]

One of the German guards killed at the checkpoint ended up with a promotion. Richard Marner was the guard saying he has leave. He played Colonel Kurt Von Strohm on 'Allo 'Allo! (1982).

[violet]

According to Ernest Borgnine in his autobiography, during the shooting, Lee Marvin once talked about Jim Brown with much disrespect, in Brown's absence, because of his skin color. Borgnine wrote Marvin was lucky that Brown was not there to hear it.

[kenneth]

This was Charles Bronson's fourth film for director Robert Aldrich. They had previously worked together on Vera Cruz (1954), Apache (1954) and 4 for Texas (1963). They were due to reunite for Death Hunt (1981), but Aldrich quit after a pay dispute with the producers.

[oscar]

Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin appeared in Death Hunt (1981). They'd previously appeared in You're in the Navy Now (1951).

[gabriel]

Later followed by three television sequels in the 1980s.

[jessica]

This was Donald Sutherland's biggest payday so far in his career, earning $600 per week. As a jobbing Canadian actor struggling in London, this saved him.

[nina]

Canadian Bacon (1995) made a reference to this film about black characters dying first. Though Robert Jefferson (Jim Brown) did die, he wasn't the first, as Pedro Jimenez (Trini López) was killed off-screen after the parachute jump.

[brent]

Although Aldrich had a reputation for making excellent macho-man movies like this one and "The Flight of the Phoenix", he also directed sensitive and powerful films about women like ,"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", and "Autumn Leaves".

[kyle]

The training segment of the story took two months to film.

[elmer]

This movie was cited by Terry Nation as one of his influences behind Blake's 7 (1978).