Trivia / The War Wagon

• Creator Backlash: John Wayne was not very fond of the finished film, although he said he felt that Kirk Douglas was very funny as Lomax.
• Doing It for the Art: Director Burt Kennedy gave up half his salary so that he could afford to hire Kirk Douglas.
• Fake Nationality: Howard Keel as an Indian.
• Hostility on the Set: Howard Keel threatened to punch John Wayne if the older actor seized hold of him again. Keel later turned down a role in The Green Berets.
• Money, Dear Boy: Howard Keel took the part of Levi Walking Bear because he needed the money. He was primarily known as a musical star and no one had made any musicals for several years.
• No Stunt Double: The 49-year-old Kirk Douglas performed most of his own stunts.
• Prop Recycling: According to the production notes on the 2003 DVD release, Keenan Wynn's battered hat that he wears in the picture was Leslie Howard's Confederate cavalry hat from Gone with the Wind which Wynn purloined from MGM. Wynn first wore the hat in a 1942 MGM screen test and "wore it in every picture he made".
• Scully Box: Kirk Douglas wore huge lifts for the scene when he first appears, so he would look in line with John Wayne.
• What Could Have Been: Burt Lancaster turned down the role of Lomax because he did not want to work with John Wayne.