Trivia / The Damned (1969)

• Cast the Expert: A particularly dark example. Karl Hass, a real-life Nazi war criminal, plays an extra in the film. At the time, he was living in Italy semi-underground, purportedly as an informant for the CIA. Whether or not the filmmakers were aware of his identity when they cast him is unknown.
• Completely Different Title: Known as La caduta degli dei (The Fall of the Gods, a rough translation of Gotterdammerung) in Italy and Europe, but renamed The Damned for English markets.
• California Doubling:
  • The "Night of Long Knives" was shot in Austria, because the real Bad Wiessee had changed too much since the 1930s.
  • The Essenback steelworks were actually located in Terni, Italy.
• Creator Backlash: Dirk Bogarde wasn't entirely happy with the finished film, feeling that Visconti had sacrificed Frederick's Character Development for the sake of focusing on Martin (who, not coincidentally, was played by Visconti's then-boyfriend). In his memoirs, Bogarde specifically cites a long scene showing Frederick immediately after murdering Joachim, instantly becoming overwhelmed with guilt, which was filmed but cut.
• Executive Meddling: Visconti wanted to score the entire film with classical music, especially Wagner and Mahler, but was overruled by the studio. He was not happy with Maurice Jarre's original music, comparing it disparagingly to Jarre's work for Doctor Zhivago.
• Fake German: Leaving aside Helmut Berger, who's Austrian; Dirk Bogarde (Frederick) and Charlotte Rampling (Elizabeth) are British; Umberto Orsini (Herbert) and Nora Ricci (the Governess) are Italian; Ingrid Thulin (Sophie) is Swedish; Renaud Verley (Gunther) is French, and Florinda Bolkan (Olga, Martin's mistress) is from Brazil.
• Same Language Dub:
  • Umberto Orisini, the only Italian member of the main cast, had his voice dubbed with a British accent, presumably to better match his co-stars.
  • Amusingly, Helmut Berger was dubbed by another actor for the German release, due to his Austrian accent.
• Star-Making Role: For Helmut Berger, who became a major star in European cinema in the '70s and '80s. Charlotte Rampling's performance pleasantly surprised critics who knew her from Georgy Girl, and established her as a serious actress.
• What Could Have Been: Visconti initially planned a four-plus-hour epic that covered the entirety of the Nazi era, but budget constraints convinced him to pare the story down to the period from 1933-1934.