Trivia / Hell Is for Heroes

• The Cast Showoff: A scene was written to show off Bob Newhart's patented one-sided-telephone-conversation comedy routines.
• Executive Meddling: Don Siegel did not want to shoot the scene where Bob Newhart's character has a fake telephone conversation with "headquarters" to fool the Germans listening through a microphone planted in the US bunker, believing that it had no place in the story. He was overruled by the studio, however. Newhart at the time was a hugely popular stand-up comic, and a major part of his act was having one-sided phone conversations. The studio ordered that the scene be shot in order to capitalize on Newhart's popularity. Newhart wrote his own lines for this scene.
• Fake Nationality: Nick Adams, born in Pennsylvania, as Homer, who's from Poland, though Adams was the son of a Ukrainian immigrant.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • According to Bob Newhart's autobiography, I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This, Steve McQueen (actor) and Bobby Darin did not get along during filming. When stories of their feud appeared in the trade papers, the film's publicist was fired. As it turned out, it was Nick Adams who leaked the story. According to Newhart, Adams felt so badly that he chased the publicist's departing plane yelling, "I'm sorry!" Columnist James Bacon visited the set and said that "Steve McQueen is his own worst enemy". Darin overheard the remark and replied, "Not while I'm still alive."
  • McQueen was also at odds with Siegel continuously during the production, with the two nearly coming to blows several times. In one scene, when McQueen was unable to cry while on camera, Siegel resorted to slapping him hard and blowing onion juice into his face, before administering eye drops that ran down the actor's face.
• Method Acting: Steve McQueen (actor) did not socialize with the rest of cast because his character was anti-social and alienated himself from the rest of the squad.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: It was written as more of a comedy (which is why Bob Newhart was cast in the film), but when Steve McQueen and Don Siegel joined the project it turned into more of an action drama.
• No Budget: Many of the cast were angry over the studio's budget restrictions, which resulted in phony looking props, malfunctioning firearms, extensive use of Stock Footage, and the same German having to be killed three or four times. In the last battle scene, Steve McQueen (actor) can be seen experiencing multiple failures firing the M3 Grease Gun. These malfunctions were due to problems with the blanks used.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Besides writing, Robert Pirosh was also supposed to direct, but quit after clashing with Steve McQueen.
  • After McQueen came on board, the script was rewritten, changing the lead character from Corby to Reese, which was apparently the main cause of the hostility between McQueen and Darin.
• Working Title: The screenplay was originally entitled Separation Hill, but the title was changed by Paramount's publicity office as being too close to Pork Chop Hill (which Harry Guardino had been in).
• Write What You Know: Robert Pirosh was a Master Sergeant during World War II, serving with the 320th Regiment, 35th Division. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and in the Rhineland. He commanded a unit in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded a Bronze Star.