To gain time for the filming, Oury had dug up a script he had written a few years before. The main French protagonists were not two men from different backgrounds but two sisters, one working in a shop selling Christian artifacts and another working in brothels (who likely became the puppeteer's daughter and the hotel manager).
The bomber crew was originally going to be American and not British.
There were plans for a third (untitled) film reuniting Gérard Oury, Bourvil and de Funès, but it never materialized. Then Delusions of Grandeur was to be this, until Bourvil's death.
Miscellaneous Trivia
La Grande Vadrouille went on to become the most successful movie ever at the French box office at the time, with 17 million cinema admissions. It took 32 years to top it (Titanic, with almost 22 million admissions, in 1998). It remained the most successful French movie at the French box office until it was topped by Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (20 million) in 2008, 42 years later.
