Richard Todd, who played Major John Howard in the film, did participate in the Normandy landing. At the time, he was a captain of the 7th Battalion, 5th Parachute Brigade, 6th Airborne Division of the British Army. His troops participated in Normandy. Reinforcement operations for landing, and fortunately, Todd did not board the originally designated aircraft, but instead boarded another aircraft. As a result, the original aircraft was shot down and all the people on board were killed.
As a soldier of the 2nd Assault Battalion, at the age of 22, Joseph Lowe participated in the Normandy landing and climbed up the Duval cape. In order to shoot the film, he climbed again 17 years later on a cliff more than 100 feet high.
In an interview, the film director Darryl F. Zanuck made some remarks about some actors forming their own film company, and cited John Wayne 's " Border Town Heroes " produced in 1960 as a failure model. John Wayne refused to act after watching the interview. In this film, John Wayne finally got a salary of 250,000 US dollars before he appeared in the film.
Former US President Eisen Howell was very willing to play himself in the film, but the makeup artist could not make him rejuvenate.
Red Buttons, who played John Steele , met the director of the film in a Parisian cafe and was selected.
Because Cleopatra was filmed at the same time as the film, which cost more than budget, Fox Company almost decided to give up filming the film. Director Darryl F. Zanuck had to accept a re-planning budget. After exhausting the film’s planned investment, the director began to pay for it. Money continues to shoot.
In the film, the theme song sung by singer Paul Anka later became the military anthem of the Canadian Airborne Force.
When cleaning up the beach near Cape Oak, the crew dug up a tank that was hidden under the beach to participate in the Normandy landing. After cleaning and maintenance, this tank later appeared in the British tank unit in the film.
When filming the landing scenes, director Darryl F. Zanuck was unable to find the German Messerschmitt fighter jets and the British Spitfire fighter jets. After several searches, he finally found that the Spanish Air Force had two Messerschmitt fighters. Special fighters, two Spitfire fighters of the Belgian Air Force are even still in service, so these 4 fighters are leased.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and France used a total of 23,000 soldiers to assist in the filming. At the time, France was working on, But still sent 1,000 commandos.
The fleet in the film was taken from the U.S. Sixth Fleet, with 22 ships in it, while avoiding the aircraft carrier because there was no aircraft carrier involved when landing in Normandy.
Before the filming started in Corsica, a man who claimed to own the beach asked the director to pay a fee of $15,000, otherwise he would not assist in the filming. There would be new cars from the 1960s on the beach, and the director agreed to pay. Later, the crew discovered that this was a scam. Corsica had no private beach at all. The director finally won compensation after 8 years of litigation.
Nudists live 2 miles from the beach in Corsica, and the crew had to post warnings to prevent them from showing up on the beach and disturbing the filming.
During the airborne footage of the Notre Dame church area, the local traffic was blocked, the shops were closed, and the power supply was stopped. Even so, some necessary lighting and artillery caused a lot of trouble. Only one or two paratroopers tried to land on the square. Suffering some minor injuries, one of the paratroopers broke both legs. In the end, the actual shooting plan was abandoned, and the jump from the high-rise crane was changed.
Eddie Albert, who played Colonel Thompson in the film , was a veteran of World War II.
The film's shooting investment was 10 million U.S. dollars, making it the most expensive black and white film before " Schindler's List ".
When filming the landing scene, some American soldiers did not want to jump off the landing craft because the water was cold. The actor Old Rumple Eyes jumped into the water first, and others had to follow suit.
The film is the first World War II film shot in the United States with dialogue in different languages, including German, French and English.
Four Spitfire fighters were used in the film, all of which were tuned by French pilot Pierre of the former Royal Air Force's 340th Squadron.
The Messerschmitt fighter used in the film is not a Bf-109, but a P40
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