Trivia / The Dirty Dozen

• Actor-Shared Background: 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.
• California Doubling: The French chateau was recreated at MGM's British studios in Borehamwood.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Jiminez (Trini Lopez) gets to very briefly showcase some of his singing skills to the tune of The Bramble Bush.
  • Jim Brown plays a soldier who is ultimately called upon to navigate an obstacle course carrying a bomb to a drop-point, much like a football player would rush for the endzone.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Lee Marvin served as a private first class in the Marines in the Pacific War and 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 (it was changed to a knife). 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.
  • In addition, quite a few actors served in World War II - Telly Savalas (Army), Charles Bronson (Army), Ernest Borgnine (Navy), Clint Walker (Merchant Marine), Robert Ryan (Marines) and George Kennedy (Army).
• Completely Different Title: In Sweden, the film was called "12 fördömda män", meaning "12 Condemned Men".
• Creator Backlash:
  • Despite being one of his biggest hits, star Lee Marvin reportedly wasn't happy with the final product, which he described as a "dumb moneymaker" that didn't properly capture how this situation would have really played out in the actual war - and he would know, being a World War II veteran himself. Marvin even went so far as to compare this film, rather unfavorably, to his later WWII epic The Big Red One which he said was a much more accurate depiction of WWII.
  • Charles Bronson didn't care for it either, claiming it was too violent and even walking out of it in the middle. Ironically, Bronson plays Wladislaw - the only one of the twelve who survives.
• Dawson Casting: Some critics felt that many of the actors were too old for their roles. Richard Jaeckel played the entry-level MP Sergeant Bowren at 41 years old, Charles Bronson played a low-level enlisted man at 46 and Ernest Borgnine played two-star general despite being four years older.
• Dyeing for Your Art: 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.
• Follow the Leader: The film was successful enough to spawn a subgenre of World War II commando films (Where Eagles Dare, Kelly's Heroes) and even a TV series with a similar premise (Garrison's Gorillas).
• Money, Dear Boy: Lee Marvin admitted that this was the only reason he did the film, he hated it because he had been a Marine during WWII and knew that real war was nothing like what the film portrayed.
• The Other Marty: Donald Sutherland was a late casting decision, replacing an actor who dropped out because he thought the role was beneath him.
• Playing Against Type: Major Armbruster is a bureaucratic staff officer, complete with Nerd Glasses, who is clearly more about logistics and statistics than front line action. He's played by George Kennedy!
• Star-Making Role: For Donald Sutherland and Jim Brown
• Throw It In!: Originally, Posey (Clint Walker) was supposed to be the character who ends up imitating a general, but Walker felt uncomfortable about doing the scene, so the director had Pinkley (Donald Sutherland) do it instead. This ended up helping Sutherland get cast in M*A*S*H.
• Troubled Production: Production on the film ran for so long that Jim Brown was in danger of missing training camp for the up-coming 1967-68 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.
  • 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.
• Uncredited Role:
  • Judith Furse as the drunken General's wife.
  • Richard Marner as a German sentry.
• What Could Have Been:
  • At one point, John Wayne strongly considered taking the role of Major Reisman. He turned it down because he felt it portrayed the military in a bad light. 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.
  • Jack Palance refused the role of Maggott when they wouldn't rewrite the script to make his character lose his racism. He also felt the film was too violent.
  • There was originally a subplot involving Reisman having an affair with the wife of a GI stationed overseas (this is partially why Wayne turned the film down).
• Working Title: Operation Dirty Dozen.

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