Trivia / The Great Escape

• Acting for Two: When Hilts strings a wire across the road to obtain a motorcycle, Steve McQueen himself played the German motorcyclist who hits the wire.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Steve McQueen was in the marines and spent a lot of time in the brink for going AWOL.
  • Charles Bronson was a coal miner before he was an actor and advised John Sturges on how to move earth.
  • Donald Pleasence had actually been a Royal Air Force pilot in World War II, who was shot down, became a prisoner of war and was tortured by the Germans. When he kindly offered advice to Sturges, he was politely asked to keep his "opinions" to himself. Later, when another star from the film informed Sturges that Pleasence had actually been a RAF Officer in a World War II German POW Stalag camp, Sturges requested his technical advice and input on historical accuracy from that point forward.
  • James Garner had been a soldier in the Korean War and was twice wounded. He was a scrounger during that time, as is his character Flt Lt Hendley.
  • Richard Attenborough was an RAF air gunner/photographer who served in the RAF for three years unlike his character, based on Squadron Leader Roger Bushell who was a Spitfire Pilot in 92 Squadron in the early years of World War Two.
  • Several cast members were actual P.O.W.s during World War II. Hannes Messemer was held in a Russian camp and Til Kiwe and Hans Reiser were prisoners of the Americans.
  • The guard who catches the escapees coming out of the hole was played by a man who had actually been a P.O.W. camp guard during WWII.
  • James Clavell, the screenwriter, was himself a POW during World War II, although of Japan rather than Germany.
• The Cast Showoff: Steve McQueen agreed to do the film on the condition that he be allowed to show off his biking skills.
• Executive Meddling: Early on in the production, Sturges began receiving memos from distributor United Artists requesting female roles in the picture. One even suggested having the dying Ashley-Pitt cradled in the lap of a beautiful girl in a low-cut blouse. The studio wanted to cast this bit by having a Miss Prison Camp contest in Munich. Sturges would have none of it.
• Fake Australian: James Coburn as Sedgwick.
• Friendship on the Set: Steve McQueen and James Garner became friends, bonding over their mututal love of motor racing.
• Hostility on the Set: Richard Attenborough said many years later working with Steve McQueen on this film was one of the toughest challenges he had ever faced and their on set relationship was not peaceful. McQueen was not combative but he wouldn't hesitate to let anyone know if things were not as he would wish them to be or believed that they ought to be.
• In Memoriam: "This film is dedicated to the fifty," in reference to the 50 prisoners of war who were executed by the SS after the mass escape from Stalag Luft III that inspired the movie. These included recaptured escapers and those who helped plan and organize the escape: Hitler wanted to massacre them all, but he was persuaded against this by high ranking German generals that such overt violation of Geneva Conventions would lead to severe reprisals against German prisoners held by the Allies. Hitler still ordered that "more than half" be executed, to be chosen randomly and in ones and twos rather than en masse to conceal the scope of the murders.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Danny says that all he could say in Russian was "I love you". Charles Bronson was fluent in Russian and spoke it as a first language from childhood.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Donald Pleasence in a very poignant example.
  • In something of an Unbuilt Trope, Charles Bronson hadn't yet achieved his Memetic Badass status and it can now be pretty jarring to see him playing such a vulnerable character.
• Production Posse: Three of the actors, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Charles Bronson starred together in The Magnificent Seven (1960), also directed by John Sturges and scored by Elmer Bernstein.
• Romance on the Set: During filming Charles Bronson met David McCallum's wife Jill Ireland, whom he later had an affair with and married.
• Star-Making Role: Richard Attenborough already had a big following in Europe, but this was his first big Hollywood movie. This would remain his best-known film for three decades until it was dethroned by Jurassic Park.
• Stunt Double: Although Steve McQueen did his own motorcycle riding, the hair-raising sixty-foot jump over a fence was done by his friend Bud Ekins, who was managing a Los Angeles-area motorcycle shop when recruited for the stunt (McQueen himself was capable of doing the stunt, but the insurance company refused to allow him to go that far, necessitating a double). It was the beginning of a new career for Ekins, as he later doubled for McQueen in Bullitt, and did much of the motorcycle riding on CHiPs.
• Throw It In!: Goff's line "No taxation without representation" during the Fourth of July scene was an ad-lib by Jud Taylor, causing Steve McQueen to do a Double Take.
• Wag the Director: The motorcycle chase was added at the insistence of Steve McQueen, who signed onto the film on the condition that he shows off his biking skills. After viewing the rushes, McQueen decided his part was minor and undeveloped. He was particularly upset that his character virtually disappears from the film for about thirty minutes in the middle so he walked out demanding rewrites. John Sturges admitted the half-hour gap was likely a problem, but with the production already behind schedule due to the heavy rain, he felt he couldn't take time out to do rewrites and reschedule. James Garner said he and James Coburn got together with McQueen to determine what his specific gripes were. Garner later said it was apparent McQueen wanted to be the hero but didn't want to be seen doing anything overtly heroic that contradicted his character's cool detachment and sardonic demeanor. At the same time, McQueen never really liked his character's calm acquiescence to his time in the cooler or the famous bit with the catcher's mitt and ball. Sturges considered writing the character out of the story altogether, but United Artists informed him they considered McQueen indispensable to the picture's success and would spring for the extra money to hire another writer, Ivan J. Moffitt, to deal with the star's demands. McQueen returned to work.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Richard Harris was originally cast as Roger Bartlett, but dropped out because filming This Sporting Life was behind schedule and he was displeased with the diminished role of Big X after script changes had been made. John Mills was offered the role, but turned it down.
  • Producer Walter Mirisch originally wanted Burt Lancaster for Hendley and Kirk Douglas for Hilts.
  • Tons for the Video game due to a design document for it being released.
• Working Title: The Last Escape.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: According to John Sturges, the screenplay went through six writers and eleven versions, and was still a work in progress during the actual shooting. "I'm not proposing that's a good way to make a picture, but it was the right way to make this one," he later said.
• Written-In Infirmity: After the plane crash, Hendley is seen limping, presumably from an injury sustained in the accident, as he runs after Colin. James Garner actually had a permanent limp that was visible when he ran; it was necessarily concealed in the rest of the film^note Hendley wouldn't have been allowed to take part in the escape with a disability that could hinder his ability to get away, but it worked in that scene so they used it.

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