Kelly's Heroes

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

Timing: 2:24 (144 min)

7.341/10
693

7.086/10
1749

7.6/10
58000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 34

Actors and characters

Release date

1970-06-22

Country

United States,

Production

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Katzka-Loeb, Avala Film

Genre

Adventure, Comedy, War

Budget

$4 000 000

Revenue

$5 200 000

Website

Director

Brian G. Hutton

Actors

Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor, Donald Sutherland, Gavin MacLeod, Hal Buckley, Stuart Margolin, Jeff Morris, Richard Davalos
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Gabriel Katzka, Sidney Beckerman, Irving L. Leonard, Harold Loeb

Operator

Gabriel Figueroa

Composer

Lalo Schifrin

Artist

Audition

Editing

John Jympson
All team (17)

• At the beginning of the film, Telly Savalas’s character (1922-1974) needs to find the best place to stay in the French city of Nancy, and he uses a Michelin tourist guidebook. Allied forces actually used similar guidebooks during World War II. During the planning of the Normandy operation, Allied headquarters were genuinely concerned that troops might get lost if the Germans removed road signs and other indicators. The US government quietly ordered the reprinting of 1939 guidebooks, as no new ones had been published due to the war. So when Allied troops landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944, officers had Michelin guidebooks with them, and they carried them throughout the war.
• The film was shot mostly in Yugoslavia because in 1970, the Yugoslav army still had many Sherman tanks.
• Approximately 20 minutes of footage was cut before the film's release, at the direction of James T. Aubrey (1918-1994), who headed the MGM film company. The film was initially titled “The Warriors,” then changed to “Kelly's Warriors” during post-production, and finally became “Kelly's Heroes.” Clint Eastwood admitted in an interview that he disliked how the studio re-edited the film, as the deleted scenes delved deeper into the characters and generally made the film better overall.
• Clint Eastwood agreed to participate in the film primarily because Don Siegel (1912-1991), his favorite director, was supposed to direct it, and the actor also had a warm, friendly relationship with him. Unfortunately, Siegel encountered some problems during the post-production of the Western “Two Mules for Sister Sara” (1969), so he left the “Kelly's Heroes” project, and Brian J. Hutton (1935-2014) became the film’s director. By that point, Eastwood had already signed a contract to film, so he couldn’t leave the project.
• In the film, Kelly and his men steal gold with a total value of $12 million. During World War II, gold cost $35 per troy ounce. Today, it’s worth almost 36 times more – around $1,000 per ounce. That adds up to between $360 and $400 million. Taking inflation into account, if everyone had kept their gold bars until today, the total value of the gold would be between $2 billion and $2.4 billion. If divided into 12 shares, each participant in the adventure (or their heirs) would receive around $200 million.
• In the film, Kelly and his men steal gold with a total value of $12 million. During World War II, gold cost $35 per troy ounce. Today, it costs almost 36 times more – around $1,000 per ounce. That brings the total to between $360 and $400 million. Taking inflation into account, if everyone had kept their bars until today, the total value of the gold would be between $2 billion and $2.4 billion. If divided into 12 parts, each participant in the adventure (or their heirs) would receive around $200 million.