Trivia / 1941 (1979)

• Acting for Two: During the USO riot scene, when a military police officer is tossed into the window of a restaurant from the fire truck, John Belushi plays the patron eating spaghetti. He is in makeup to resemble Marlon Brando in The Godfather, whom he famously parodied on Saturday Night Live. Belushi told Steven Spielberg he wanted to appear as a second character and the idea struck Spielberg as humorous.
• All-Star Cast: And how. Featuring Nancy Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, John Candy, Eddie Deezen, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Patti LuPone, Tim Matheson, Warren Oates, Slim Pickens, Wendie Jo Sperber, Robert Stack, Treat Williams, and even Christopher Lee as the Nazi officer and Toshiro Mifune as the Japanese officer! Not to mention cameos from the likes of Lucille Benson, James Caan, Elisha Cook Jr., Joe Flaherty, Samuel Fuller, Jerry Hardin, David Lander, John Landis, Michael McKean, Penny Marshall, Dick Miller, Rita Taggart, and a young Mickey Rourke in his acting debut.
• Cast the Expert: Several of the film's actors actually served in the military during World War II. Christopher Lee was an intelligence officer for the RAF and later the Special Operations Executive, Toshiro Mifune was an aerial photographer for the Imperial Japanese Army's aerial division, Robert Stack was an Aerial Gunnery Officer in the US Navy, Slim Pickens was a US Army radioman, Dick Miller was in the Navy, and Iggie Wolfington, Samuel Fuller, and Elisha Cook Jr. were US Army infantryman who fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
• The Cast Showoff: Christopher Lee's dialogue as the German officer is exclusively in German. Lee was fluent not only in German but French, Italian, and Spanish. He was moderately proficient in Swedish, Russian, and Greek.
• Creative Differences: Cinematographer William A. Fraker was reportedly fired late in shooting due to creative differences with Steven Spielberg and John Milius. The remainder of this movie was shot by Frank Stanley. Fraker was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award for the cinematography of this movie.
• Creator Backlash: Spielberg readily acknowledges he screwed up big time. It was such a massive failure that in the trailers for Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was the only Spielberg movie not mentioned. Interestingly, his shame in it wasn't because of poor quality or the fact that it was an uncharacteristically funny movie for him to direct, but because it wasn't funny enough for his standards.
• The Danza: Dick Miller as Officer Miller.
• Deleted Scene:
  • In one deleted scene, Captain Wild Bill Kelso meets Sergeant Frank Tree right before he boards the Japanese sub. They look at each other as if recognizing one another, a nod to John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's real-life friendship. It was the only scene in the film where they interacted.
  • A scene of Slim Pickens being threatened with what looks like a torture device but turns out to be a coat hanger was cut, but Steven Spielberg liked the joke so much he swore that he'd try to put it in every one of his future movies until it stayed. He got his wish in his very next film, but just imagine if he hadn't and had held his promise during some of his later work...
• Enforced Method Acting: Toshiro Mifune, who had been in the Imperial Japanese Military during World War II, grew disgusted with the lackadaisical behavior of the actors (mostly Nisei) who were playing the submarine crew. So he took the expedient of actually acting like an Imperial Japanese Navy captain would with his crew, including shouting at them and administering at least one Bright Slap to the actors, all of this with Spielberg's permission. The actors shaped up, realizing that Mifune was not playing around.
• Fake Nationality: Christopher Lee as a German officer.
• Follow the Leader: Steven Spielberg was obviously trying to do his take on the rollicking, anarchic comedy stylings of John Landis (the two were close friends at the time).
• Follow-Up Failure: Although not really the Box Office Bomb it's often remembered as, 1941 was almost universally panned by critics and, by Steven Spielberg's own admission, provided a needed humbling experience after the success of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind had gone to his head. Fortunately, things got right back on track with his next film.
  • Spielberg also said that for Raiders he really wanted to prove that he could do a movie in time and under budget (which he did) and this movie was one of the main reasons.
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to the memory of Charlsie Bryant, a longtime script supervisor at Universal Studios. She had served in that capacity on both Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and would have reprised those duties with this film had she not unexpectedly died.
• Leslie Nielsen Syndrome: This was the first comedy role for veteran dramatic actor Robert Stack. He went on to appear in several comedies through the remainder of his career, though he ironically played the Only Sane Man in the cast of 1941.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift:
  • The original Zemeckis-Gale script was a Black Comedy entitled The Night the Japs Attacked.
  • Stanley Kubrick tried to talk Spielberg into making the film as a straight war drama. Later, Spielberg supposedly considered doing it as a musical.
• Playing Against Type:
  • John Candy, usually cast as Big Fun or at least Nice Guy characters, is a racist Jerkass here.
  • Steven Spielberg would later refer to this film as "my comedy".
• Production Posse: The movie reunites Spielberg and model maker Greg Jein and his team from Close Encounters of the Third Kind for the visual effects.
• Recycled Set: The gas station that Wild Bill Kelso accidentally blows up early in the film is the same one seen in Duel, with Lucille Benson appearing as the proprietor in both films.
• Throw It In!: John Belushi really did slip on the dew that had coated the plane wing. Luckily, his ability to pop right back up made it fit perfectly with the character.
• Troubled Production:
  • Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale wrote the script in film school and it quickly becoming notorious in the industry for how batshit insane it was, with the two of them throwing in any random idea off the top of their head. One of those people intrigued by it was Steven Spielberg, who after becoming the biggest name in Hollywood after the back to back smash successes of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind decided to do this script next. And putting these three fresh young egos together quickly sent them even further down the rabbit hole, with the script mutating pretty much daily with one crazy idea after another, while no one was willing to rein them in.
  • Further problems were caused by them beefing up the role of Wild Bill Kelso after casting John Belushi, fresh off his own success with Animal House, only for his notorious unreliability and habit of wandering off set without warning wrecking havoc with the schedule.
  • Also causing issues was Toshiro Mifune, who was disgusted with the lackadaisical attitude of the other actors playing the Japanese submarine crew and appointed himself as a drill sergeant to whip them into shape and take the process seriously.
  • The film's massive action scenes caused so much noise that the cast were unable to hear Spielberg yell "Cut," so he resorted to firing one of the prop machine guns in the air during these scenes to let them know to stop.
  • An actual, functioning replica of an M3 Lee medium tank was built for filming. Part of the reason the movie went over budget. Particularly noteworthy as the M3 Lee is far less well-known than its replacement, the M4 Sherman medium tank.
  • The premiere screening was a disaster, with Spielberg having noted he was especially bemused to see so many people covering their ears; he'd seen plenty covering their eyes during Jaws but this was a new one for him. It was savaged by critics and did middling business, which Spielberg and the Bobs have described as a much-needed humbling experience, after which they were all able to go on to wildly successful careers (with the film's position smack in the middle of what would otherwise be a spectacular four film smash hit run for Spielberg ironically causing it to be remembered as a much bigger bomb than it was), including Spielberg producing one of the Bobs' biggest hits Back to the Future a few years later.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ivan Reitman was first approached to direct this movie, but he declined because he was busy shooting Meatballs at the same time.
  • Spielberg initially approached John Wayne to play Stilwell. Wayne, unaware that the film was to be a comedy, showed an interest... until he read the script, after which he refused in disgust at the film's "anti-American" tone. Charlton Heston passed on it either for the same reason or due to never forgiving Spielberg for not casting him as Brody in Jaws. Roy Scheider was also offered the role.
  • The Ferris wheel subplot started as a vehicle for Jackie Gleason and Art Carney to essentially reprise their roles from The Honeymooners, to the point where the original script describes the characters as resembling a bus driver and a sewer worker. Gleason torpedoed the plan by mysteriously refusing to work with Carney again.
  • The Ferris Wheel's destruction was originally going to be followed up by a Carousel following suit; including a gag where it bounced into several buildings. This second part was nixed when Spielberg saw its model in action, and requested the model makers to spare it, taking it home soon after.
  • For a while there was going to be a scene where Wally is dancing along with a musical film behind the screen, and ends up falling through it, out of Joe E. Brown's mouth.
  • Zemickis and Gale briefly considered ending the film with the "Buy war bonds at this theater" card which was a regular feature during World War II (those being the days when films, shorts, cartoons, and newsreels simply ran on a constant loop and people left once it got back around to where they came in).
  • Harold Ramis was first hired to write a draft of the screenplay, but was fired due to creative differences between John Milius and Steven Spielberg.

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