Trivia / The Shoes Of The Fisherman

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: By the time the film was set to take place (the late 1980s) the College of Cardinals had already elected a non-Italian from an east European country as Pope, Karol Wojtyla, in 1978 as John Paul II.
• Fake Nationality: There were several in this film.
  • The Ukrainian Pope Kiril was played by the Mexican-American Anthony Quinn.
  • His predecessor was played by the British actor Sir Arthur John Gielgud.
  • The Russian Premier Kamenev was played by the English actor Sir Laurence Olivier.
• At the time the movie was made, election by acclamation as shown in the movie was still a permissible method of electing a Pope. The last real Pope elected in that manner was Innocent XI in 1676. In 1996 Pope John Paul II eliminated election by commission or acclamation as means of electing a Pope, leaving the secret ballot as the only means of electing a Pope. He did this on the grounds that a secret ballot actually required each voting Cardinal to express his choice whereas with the other methods there was a chance that not every voting Cardinal would express his own choice.^note The last Pope elected by commission was John XXII in the early 14th century.