Trivia / War and Peace (1956)

• California Doubling: Italy substitutes for Russia in this film.
• Creator Backlash: Henry Fonda later regretted starring in this film, feeling he was far too old to play Pierre, saying he only did it for the money, and because he was a fan of the book.
• Fake Nationality: Napoleon Bonaparte is played by Czech-British Herbert Lom.
• Fake Russian: The film has a cast of British (Audrey Hepburn, Jeremy Brett), American (Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer), Italian (Vittorio Gassman, Anna Maria Ferrero), Swedish (Anita Ekberg, May Britt), and Austrian (Oskar Homolka, Helmut Dantine) actors. But no actual Russians.
• Role Reprise: Herbert Lom, who plays Napoleon, previously played him in The Young Mr Pitt (1942).
• Same Language Dub: Anita Ekberg and May Britt were both overdubbed because their Swedish accents were too thick. Several of the Italian actors were also dubbed for similar reasons.
• Troubled Production:
  • Producer Dino De Laurentiis and star Henry Fonda were constantly at each other's throats during filming. De Laurentiis disagreed with Fonda's interpretation of Pierre, wanting him to be a more traditional romantic lead, while Fonda wanted to remain more faithful to his characterization in the novel, which De Laurentiis had apparently never read. To that end, the producer would go into screaming fits of rage whenever he saw Fonda wearing Pierre's glasses, which is why they suddenly disappear in some scenes - Fonda surreptitiously removed them whenever De Laurentiis was on set.
  • Fonda claimed that he had only agreed to do this movie after reading an early version of the screenplay (which ran 506 pages - if one minute equals one page on screen, this would have made it a good 35 minutes longer than the 1966 version), and was much displeased when this was re-written by others. Said script (which has SIX credit authors and at least two more uncredited ones) was being constantly rewritten during shooting by Vidor to meet De Laurentiis' demands.
• Uncredited Role: Famed thespian Robert Stephens makes his film debut here as a bit Russian officer.
• What Could Have Been: Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando were both offered the role of Pierre. Clift turned it down over a pay dispute, and Brando rejected it because he disliked Audrey Hepburn. King Vidor wanted either Paul Scofield or Peter Ustinov, but Dino De Laurentiis shot both choices down because they weren't considered marketable enough.