The Dirty Dozen (1967) Online

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Lee Marvin	-	Maj. Reisman
	Ernest Borgnine	-	Gen. Worden
	Charles Bronson	-	Joseph Wladislaw
	Jim Brown	-	Robert Jefferson
	John Cassavetes	-	Victor Franko
	Richard Jaeckel	-	Sgt. Bowren
	George Kennedy	-	Maj. Max Armbruster
	Trini López	-	Pedro Jiminez (as Trini Lopez)
	Ralph Meeker	-	Capt. Stuart Kinder
	Robert Ryan	-	Col. Everett Dasher Breed
	Telly Savalas	-	Archer Maggott
	Donald Sutherland	-	Vernon Pinkley
	Clint Walker	-	Samson Posey
	Robert Webber	-	Gen. Denton
	Tom Busby	-	Milo Vladek

Lee Marvin referred to this movie as "crap" and "just a dummy moneymaker", although he enjoyed the film. The movie has nothing to do with war, he stressed, and he was very pleased that he got to do Il grande uno rosso (1980), which mirrored his own wartime experiences. Marvin also said many of the actors in this film were too old to play soldiers.

One scene required Lee Marvin to drive an armoured 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".

Production on the film ran for so long, that Jim Brown was in danger of missing training camp for the up-coming 1965 to 1966 football season. As training camp and the NFL season approached, the NFL threatened to fine and suspend Brown if he did not leave filming and report to camp immediately. Not one to take threats, Brown simply held a press conference to announce his retirement from football. At the time of his retirement, Brown was considered to be one of the best in the game, and even today is considered to be one of the NFL's all-time greats.

The scene where one of the dozen pretends to be a General inspecting Robert Ryan's troops was initially written for Samson Posey (Clint Walker). However, Walker was uncomfortable with this scene, so Director Robert Aldrich decided to use Donald Sutherland instead. The scene was directly responsible for Sutherland being cast in M.A.S.H. (1970), which made him an international star.

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.

Joseph Wladislaw says that his father was a coal miner from Silesia (an area of Poland known for its coal mining). In real-life, this was true of Charles Bronson's (real name: Charles Buchinsky) father, who was a coal miner from Lithuania, and Bronson himself worked in the mines as a boy in Pennsylvania.

Lee Marvin (Marines), Telly Savalas (Army), Charles Bronson (Army), Ernest Borgnine (Navy), Clint Walker (Merchant Marine), Robert Ryan (Marines), and George Kennedy (Army) all served in World War II.

Jim Brown later recalled: "I loved my part. I was one of the Dozen, a quiet leader, and my own man, at a time when Hollywood wasn't giving those roles to blacks. I've never had more fun making a movie. The male cast was incredible. I worked with some of the strongest, craziest guys in the business."

Construction of the fake chateau proved to be too good. The script called for it to be blown up, but the construction was so solid, that seventy tons of explosives would have been needed to achieve the effect. Instead, a section was rebuilt from cork and plastic.

Lee Marvin provided technical assistance with uniforms and weapons to create realistic portrayals of combat, yet bitterly complained about the falsity of some scenes. He thought Reisman's wrestling the bayonet from the enraged Posey to be particularly phony. Director Robert Aldrich replied that the plot was preposterous, and that by the time the audience had left the cinema, they would have been so overwhelmed by action, explosions, and killing, that they would have forgotten the lapses.

Director Robert Aldrich intended the film as an anti-war allegory for what was happening in Vietnam.

Lee Marvin related a joke Robert Aldrich pulled on Charles Bronson, who was only about 5'9" and wore low boxing shoes during rehearsal. When it came time to set up the first inspection scene, he placed Bronson between the 6'6" 'Clint Walker' and the 6'4" Donald Sutherland. According to Marvin, Aldrich laughed for about ten minutes over Bronson's perturbed reaction.

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

Donald Sutherland was a late casting decision, replacing an actor who dropped out because he thought the role was beneath him.

"The Dirty Dozen" author E.M. Nathanson may have gotten the idea for the title (if not the plot) of his best-selling novel from a real-life group of World War II 101st Airborne Division paratroopers nicknamed "The Filthy Thirteen". These men, demolitionists in Headquarters Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st, supposedly earned their nickname by not bathing nor shaving for a long period of time during training prior to the Normandy invasion. Members of The Filthy Thirteen can be seen in famous vintage film footage and still photos, their faces painted with Indian "war paint", before boarding their planes for the D-Day jump. Another idea source for Nathanson's book may have come from future Director Russ Meyer, who was at the time a combat cameraman. He had shot some footage of a group of American soldiers, inmates at a military prison who were under death sentences for such crimes as murder, rape, and mutiny, who were training at a secret location for the D-Day invasion, for which they would be parachuted behind German lines to commit acts of sabotage and assassinations. Prison authorities told Meyer that the men, who volunteered, were told that if they survived and returned, their sentences would be set aside, their records expunged, and they would be set free. Guards told him that the group was called "the dirty dozen" because they refused to bathe or shave. After the invasion, Meyer made inquiries as to these men's fates, and was told that none of them came back. After the war, he related this story to Nathanson, who was a friend of his.

John Wayne was first offered the part of Major John Reisman, but he declined. The part was then offered to Lee Marvin, who took it. Wayne's refusal was due to his disapproval of the original script, in which Reisman has a brief affair with a married woman whose husband is fighting overseas. Other sources say Wayne turned the film down because he did not want to be making a movie in the UK when his third wife Pilar was due to give birth in February 1966.

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.

Jack Palance turned down the role of Archer Maggott because he disapproved of the character's racist overtones, and because he believed the film contained too much unnecessary violence.

The operation count-off was as follows: - One: down to the road block we've just begun. - Two: the guards are through. - Three: the Major's men are on a spree. - Four: Major and Wladislaw go through the door. - Five: Pinkley stays out in the drive. - Six: the Major gives the rope a fix. - Seven: Wladislaw throws the hook to heaven. - Eight: Jiminez has got a date. - Nine: the other guys go up the line. - Ten: Sawyer and Gilpin are in the pen. - Eleven: Posey guards points Five and Seven. - Twelve: Wladislaw and the Major go down to delve. - Thirteen: Franko goes up without being seen. - Fourteen: Zero hour, Jiminez cuts the cable, Franko cuts the phone. - Fifteen: Franko goes in where the others have been. - Sixteen: we all come out like it's Halloween.

One of the first Hollywood movies to show American soldiers deliberately committing war crimes.

George Kennedy, Clint Walker, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown reunited to play the voices of the soldiers in Small Soldiers (1998).

During World War II, the American forces did "borrow" a prison in the UK for housing U.S. servicemen convicted of criminal acts. This was Shepton Mallett prison in Somerset, which operated as a prison from 1625 to 2013. During the war, nine U.S. military personnel were executed there, three by firing squad, and six by hanging. The hangman used was British Albert Pierrepoint, who in his career hanged approximately four hundred fifty people, including around two hundred Nazis convicted by the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Lee Marvin later recalled how Robert Aldrich instructed his cast to get their contemporary hair styles changed to ones more fitting for the time and setting. Marvin immediately got a crew cut, but many of the others merely got trims to their existing styles. After telling them twice their looks weren't acceptable, Aldrich finally told them they needed either to come in with their hair cut correctly or else call their lawyers.

Reisman was a Captain in the novel. He was made a Major for the film, as Lee Marvin was forty-two.

The French château that appears in the film was constructed especially for the production by Art Director William Hutchinson and his crew of eighty-five. One of the largest sets ever built, it stood two hundred forty feet across and fifty feet high. Gardeners surrounded the building with fifty-four hundred square yards of heather, four hundred ferns, four hundred fifty shrubs, thirty spruce trees, and six full-grown weeping willows.

MGM's biggest moneymaker of 1967.

Charles Bronson didn't care for the film, claiming it was too violent. He even walked out of it in the middle.

The film was controversial when it was released, as it depicted Allied soldiers as no different than Nazis.

Lee Marvin later turned down Dove osano le aquile (1968) because he hated making this film.

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, Quando muore una stella (1968) and L'assassinio di 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 Quella sporca ultima meta (1974).

Lee Marvin had high praise for all the men in the film, commenting that everyone was ideally cast "and even when they ad-libbed a scene, invariably it was in character, so all it could do was to help the film."

The cast apparently enjoyed England, spending a lot of time in what was then swinging London though Lee Marvin would occasionally disappear on one of his motorcycle outings. Clint Walker had an unusual experience. He was a well-known TV star for Cheyenne with some film roles under his belt. Walker visited Buckingham Palace and marveled at the famously immobile guards but as he started to walk away, one asked for an autograph out of the side of his mouth.

General Worden choking his drink upon hearing of the Dozen's party was ad-libbed by Ernest Borgnine.

Lee Marvin had worked with Robert Aldrich before, on Prima linea (1956). He found the director "a tremendous man to work with. You knew when you went to work with him you were both going for the same object, a good final print."

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

The film was shot in various locations in England, primarily in Hertfordshire. The major part of it (the training sequence) was shot at Hendon Aerodrome, about seven miles (eleven kilometers) north of central London, while the besieged chateau was built at MGM's British studios in Borehamwood.

Lee Marvin based the character of Reisman on John Miara of Malden, Massachusetts, who was a close personal friend of Marvin while both were serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.

The film was released at a time when there was considerable debate over the morality of the bombing of German cities by the Royal Air Force, and later the U.S. Army Air Forces, from 1940 to 1945. There was also considerable reassessment of the "heroism" of Allied soldiers during World War II, particularly in view of the Vietnam War.

Although Robert Aldrich had tried to purchase the rights to E.M. Nathanson's novel "The Dirty Dozen" while it was still in outline form, it was MGM that successfully acquired the property in May 1963. The book became a best-seller upon its publication in 1965.

Although it is never mentioned in the film, Major Reisman was Jewish.

Most of the events in the film were taken from the final part of the novel.

Woody Allen joined Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas to play poker when filming was finished for the day. He was simultaneously filming James Bond 007 - Casino Royale (1967) in London and earning "a fat salary". Filming was so far behind schedule, that he would gladly hook up with the cast for a few hands of poker.

Later followed by three television sequels in the 1980s.

On the eve of their final battle, they are eating in the guards' hut. The fact that they are twelve men plus the leader (Reisman), and the fact that they are all sitting on the same side of the table with their backs to the wall resembles The Last Supper painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It's an omen for those who die.

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.

The submachine guns being used by most of the Dirty Dozen is the M3, .45 caliber ACP submachine gun known as the "Grease Gun". It came into use late in the war, replacing Thompson submachine guns (Tommy guns). It was not a general issue weapon to infantrymen, but normally used as the crew weapon on a tank. Many "found" their way to the frontline troops, however. This earlier model weapon had a charging lever on the side. Later models (M3A1) were charged by simply pulling back on the bolt by inserting your finger into a recess in the bolt. The M3A1 wire stock included a tab to help load magazines, the ends threaded to accept a cleaning brush to clean the barrel, and was used as a wrench to unscrew the barrel for disassembly. The weapon, only manufactured during World War II by General Motors Headlight division, cost about twenty dollars to produce, as opposed to the Thompson, which cost several hundred.

The cast learned judo and commando techniques.

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).

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

Six of the Dozen were well-known American stars, while the "Back Six" were actors resident in the UK: Englishman Colin Maitland, Canadians Donald Sutherland and Tom Busby, and Americans Stuart Cooper, Al Mancini, and Ben Carruthers.

According to Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson was adamant that he wasn't going to cut his hair for " The Dirty Dozen ". Director Robert Aldrich called Bronson into his office one day and holding up the phone, told him he was talking to Bronson's lawyer and said, " Charlie, that was your lawyer in L.A. on the phone. He wants to know if he should fly over to cut your hair, or whether you're going to get it done here?".

The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and George Kennedy; and four Oscar nominees: Robert Ryan, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Richard Jaeckel.

In the novel, Reisman was thirty, and Wladislaw, Franko, Maggott, and Posey were in their twenties.

When Cleveland Browns' fullback Jim Brown signed on as Jefferson, Robert Aldrich beefed up his part because he was such a big football fan.

In the film's original opening scene, while Reisman walked down the line of condemned men, all of their individual crimes are listed out loud, along with their names and prison terms. In subsequent, more politically correct years, there are noticeable gaps in the audio, as the list of crimes has been deleted from the soundtrack, sometimes seamlessly, sometimes more awkwardly.

Many of the actors were much older than their characters in the novel.

In a TCM short about Lee Marvin and the filming of this movie, the working title of the film was shown as "Operation Dirty Dozen".

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

Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland appeared in I guerrieri (1970).

Reisman's first name was Jacob. "John" was just a nickname.

This was the first commercially produced Hollywood film to open the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1967 (the festival began in 1947 under the name of the First International Festival of Documentary Films).

Director Bob Aldrich hated to work in England. British crews were too slow for his fast pace of working.

Features John Cassavetes's only Oscar nominated acting performance.

Jim Brown, Ernest Borgnine, and Donald Sutherland appeared in I sei della grande rapina (1968).

Robert Aldrich was attracted to both the story's action elements and to its core irony, that the heroes were criminals and even psychopaths.

Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland appeared in Kelly's Heroes (1970) . Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin appeared in Death Hunt (1981). Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas appeared in Violent City (1970).

When Jefferson is going to throw the grenades into the air shafts someone yells, remember Jefferson 20 seconds. A grenade would go off in less than 6 seconds.

In Spain, the dubbed version changed Franko's name to Franchi because the country's ruler at the time was Francisco Franco.

Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, and Ernest Borgnine appeared in Giorno maledetto (1955).

The opening credits don't occur until several minutes into the movie. Although a common practice today, it was considered unusual back in 1967.

Final screenplay written by Nunnally Johnson.

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

When MGM first announced this in 1964, George Seaton was being lined up to direct.

Had the unit left for Allied lines, they could have connected with Airborne pathfinders after the mission.

Charles Bronson was originally chosen to play Colonel Nick Alexander in Delta Force (1986), but ultimately was played by Lee Marvin. Also, George Kennedy appeared in that film.

Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, and Charles Bronson appeared in La battaglia dei giganti (1965).

Film debut of Stuart Cooper.

Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin appeared in Caccia selvaggia (1981). They'd previously appeared in Il comandante Johnny (1951).

Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas appeared in Città violenta (1970).

John Cassavetes directed Ben Carruthers in Ombre (1958).

Robert Aldrich was told that he could be in line for an Oscar as Best Director for the film if he cut out the scene of Jim Brown dropping hand grenades into the bomb shelter. The scene was considered controversial because the Germans (including women) were locked inside the bunker and had no chance to survive. Aldrich considered it, but elected to leave the scene in to show that "war is hell".

As film production ran over schedule, Frank Sinatra advised Trini López to quit, so that his recording career wouldn't lose its momentum or popularity. Lopez took Sinatra's advice and quit. Another account is that his agent demanded more money, which Robert Aldrich refused to grant. Originally, Lopez's character, Jiminez, was supposed to be one of the heroes. He was to be the one to ignite all of the dynamite that would destroy the entire château. With Lopez's abrupt departure, however, his character was written off as being killed during the parachute jump.

Joseph Wladislaw (Charles Bronson) was one of the survivors and remained alive after the mission. In La grande fuga (1963), Danny "Tunnel King" (Charles Bronson) was one of the three characters who managed to escape and remained alive.

Operazione 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 Jiminez (Trini López) was killed off-screen after the parachute jump.