It’s very simple. If you haven’t seen The Longest Day you have missed one of the best war movies ever. I’m no history buff so I don’t know how accurate it truly is but it certainly comes across as authentic right down to the various nationalities actually speaking their own languages (don’t you hate it when you’re watching German soldiers speak English? Why, I even saw an old movie once in which the German soldiers had British accents – and that was really trippy). Anywho, you should see this movie, even if it is 3 hours long. It was a long day for those soldiers, and this is a fitting tribute.
Doug? Perhaps you have a comment?
Below you will find some trivia taken from Wikipedia. I hope you find it scintillating:
Richard Todd (playing Major John Howard, Officer Commanding D Company of The 2nd Battalion The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Air Landing Brigade, 6th Airborne Division) was himself in Normandy on D-Day, and participated as Capt. Todd of the 7th Parachute Battalion, 5th Parachute Brigade, British 6th Airborne Division. His battalion actually went into action as reinforcements, via a parachute jump (after the gliders had landed and completed the initial coup de main assault). Capt. Richard ‘Sweeney’ Todd was moved from the plane he was originally scheduled to jump from, to another. The original plane was shot down, killing everyone on board.
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 hundred-foot cliffs all over again, for the cameras, some 17 years later.
Darryl F. Zanuck was quoted in an interview as saying that he didn’t think much of actors forming their own production companies, citing The Alamo (1960), produced by John Wayne, as a failure of such ventures. Wayne found out about this interview before being approached by Zanuck, and refused to appear in the film unless he was paid $250,000 for his role (when the other famous actors were being paid $25,000). Wayne got his requested salary.
Henry Grace was not an actor when being cast as Dwight D. Eisenhower, but his remarkable resemblance to Eisenhower got him the role.
Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was considered for the role of himself in the film, and he indicated his willingness. However, it was decided that makeup artists couldn’t make him appear young enough to play his WWII self.
Due to the massive cost overruns on the film Cleopatra (1963) (which was filming contemporaneously), Darryl F. Zanuck had to agree to a fixed filming budget. After he had spent the budgeted amount he started using his own money to pay for the production.
According to fellow veterans major Werner Pluskat was not at his command bunker in Omaha Beach when the first wave of the invasion forces landed, instead he was in a bordello in Caen.
The theme song to the movie, by Paul Anka, was used as the Regimental march of the Canadian Airborne Regiment (1968-1995)
The piper who played the bagpipes as Lord Lovat’s commandos stormed ashore is played by the late Pipe Major Leslie de Laspee who was at the time Pipe Major of the London Scottish Pipe Band, and personal piper to HM the Queen Mother. The actual man who did this stirring deed on D-Day is Bill Millin. He recently donated that very set of pipes to the national war memorial in Edinburgh Castle.
While clearing a section of the Normandy beach near Ponte du Hoc, the film’s crew unearthed a tank that had been buried in the sand since the original invasion. Mechanics cleaned it off, fixed it up and it was used in the film as part of the British tank regiment.
One of producer Darryl F. Zanuck’s big worries was that, as filming of the actual invasion drew near, he couldn’t find any working German Messerschmitts, which strafed the beach, or British Spitfires, which chased them away. He finally found two Messerschmitts that were being used by the Spanish Air Force, and two Spitfires that were still on active duty with the Belgian Air Force, and rented all four of them for the invasion scenes.
An estimated 23,000 troops were supplied by the U.S., Britain and France for the filming. (Germans only appeared as officers in speaking roles.) The French contributed 1,000 commandos despite their involvement in the Algerian War at the time.
The Spitfire planes needed to be fitted with new Rolls-Royce engines before being usable.
No gliders of the sort used in the invasion were available, so Darryl F. Zanuck commissioned new duplicates from the same company that built the originals.
The fleet scenes were filmed using 22 ships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet during maneuvers off Corsica between June 21-30, 1961. The cameras had to avoid shooting the area where the fleet’s aircraft carrier was positioned, as there were no carriers in the invasion.
Just before shooting began in Corsica, Darryl F. Zanuck was approached by a man stating he represented the beach owners. He insisted on a $15,000 payment or else they would drive modern cars along the beach. Zanuck paid the money, but it was later discovered to be a scam as there were no private beaches in Corsica. Zanuck eventually won damages after an eight-year lawsuit.
As there was a nudist colony two miles inland from the Corsican beach, it was necessary to post signs warning the colonists not to approach the water during filming.
During shooting in Ste. Mère-Eglise, traffic was stopped, stores were closed and the power was shut down in order not to endanger the paratroopers who were unused to night drops in populated areas. Still, the lights and staged fire proved too difficult to work around, and only one or two jumpers managed to land in the square – with several suffering minor injuries. One of the initial jumpers broke both legs in landing. Ultimately, plans to use authentic jumps were abandoned, opting instead for rigged jumps from high cranes.
Eddie Albert, who played Colonel Thompson, was a World War II veteran. However, Albert actually served in the Pacific, not in Europe.
With a $10,000,000 budget, this was the most expensive black & white film ever made until Schindler’s List (1993).
During the filming of the landings at Omaha Beach, the American soldiers appearing as extras didn’t want to jump off the landing craft into the water because they thought it would be too cold. Robert Mitchum, who played General Norm Cota, finally got disgusted with them and jumped in first, at which point the soldiers had no choice but to follow his example.
In Italy for the filming of Cleopatra (1963), Roddy McDowall became so frustrated with the numerous delays during its production, he begged Darryl F. Zanuck for a part in this picture just so he could do some work. He ended up with a small role as an American soldier.
One of the very first World War II films made by an American studio in which the members of each country spoke nearly all their dialogue in the language of that country: the Germans spoke German, the French spoke French, and the Americans and Britishers spoke English. There were subtitles on the bottom of the screen to translate the various languages.
Richard Todd, veteran of the action at the bridge at Benouville (later renamed Pegasus Bridge) (see Item 1 above), was offered the chance to play himself but joked, “I don’t think at this stage of my acting career I could accept a part ‘that’ small.” He played the commander of the actual bridge assault itself, Major John Howard, instead.
The role of Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort was actively sought by Charlton Heston, but the last-minute decision of John Wayne to take a role in the film prevented Heston from participating.
Four Spitfires were used in the strafing sequence. They were all ex-Belgian target tugs and all were MK9’s. The serial no.s were MH415, MK297, MK923 and MH434 and all are still extant. The Spitfires were assembled and co-ordinated by former free French Spitfire pilot Pierre Laureys who flew with 340 Squadron, a free French unit in the RAF. The 4 Spitfires were of course re-painted in 340 Squadron markings. Spitfire MK923 was between 1963 and 1998 owned by film actor and Oscar winner Cliff Robertson.
In his memoirs Christopher Lee recalls being rejected for a role in the movie because he didn’t look like a military man (he served in the RAF during WW2).
The Messerschmitts used to portray Luftwaffe fighters were not Bf-109s, but were actually Bf-108 Taifuns, a four-seat cabin monoplane design with a wider fuselage.
Kenneth More, playing Capt. Colin Maud, carried the shillelagh Maud had used in the actual invasion. Maud loaned it to More so the actor could use it in the film.
In researching his contribution to the script, Romain Gary uncovered one of Cornelius Ryan’s mistakes: the casino at Ouistreham had not existed on June 6, 1944. Since the casino set had already been built, however, the scene taking place there was filmed anyway.
A little artistic license never hurt anybody…
