The Dirty Dozen - videos, teasers and stills from filming

All videos, teasers and footage from the filming of the film "The Dirty Dozen"

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Timing: 2:29 (149 min)

7.584/10
1300

7.231/10
2696

7.7/10
77739

All about film

Video 1

Photo 74

Actors and characters

Dirty Dozen (1967) Official Trailer - Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes World War 2 Movie HD

English

3:36

What's left behind the scenes

One scene required Lee Marvin to drive a car with Charles Bronson’s character in the passenger seat. Everything was ready to shoot, except for Marvin. He was eventually found in a pub in central London, taken to the studio, and pumped full of coffee to sober up. When Marvin literally stumbled out of the car on set, Bronson exclaimed: “Goddamn it, Lee, I’ll just kill you!”
Clint Walker was originally supposed to play a role in one scene, but seeing his negative attitude towards it, director Robert Aldrich ordered the script to be changed so that Donald Sutherland’s character would play the scene instead. It was Sutherland’s performance in that scene that got him cast in Robert Altman’s war drama *MASH*, which ultimately made him famous.
Work on the film dragged on for so long that Jim Brown began to worry he would miss training camp before the start of the 1965-1966 football season. Eventually, NFL management began threatening Brown with fines and suspension if he didn’t leave the set immediately and report to training camp. Brown called a press conference and announced his retirement from football, even though he was considered one of the best players at the time.
Once, at a reception in London, Lee Marvin got so drunk that he made an indecent proposal to a woman older than himself, and in a particularly vulgar manner. Because he was slurring his words, she politely asked him to repeat himself, which he did. The woman turned out to be Sean Connery’s aunt, who was also at the reception. He was walking towards where Marvin was when producer Kenneth Hyman stopped him, saying: “Sean, just don’t hit him in the face, he has a close-up to shoot tomorrow.” Connery, after being explained what happened, simply burst out laughing and made some joke about all producers in general.
Lee Marvin served as a consultant on military uniforms and weapons, striving to portray the war as realistically as possible in the film and complaining about the falseness of certain scenes (for example, when one character takes a bayonet from another). Director Robert Aldrich simply remarked in response that the entire script was ridiculous and absurd, and that by the time viewers left the cinema, they would be so stunned by the action scenes, explosions, and deaths that they wouldn’t think about the film's flaws.
The department responsible for the castle set designs truly outdid themselves. The script required the castle to be blown up, but the set was built so sturdily that it would have taken 70 tons of explosives to destroy it. Therefore, part of the building had to be rebuilt – this time from cork.
Robert Aldrich ordered the actors to change their modern hairstyles to ones that would be appropriate for the time and place specified in the script. Marvin immediately got a haircut, while the others preferred to simply shorten the hairstyles they already had. Aldrich repeated twice to everyone that their appearance did not match the image, and finally ordered all the actors to either do as he said or bring their lawyers next time.
Robert Aldrich was informed that he could be nominated for an Academy Award in the 'Best Director' category if he cut the scene with Jim Brown's character throwing grenades into a bomb shelter (where women and children were hiding, with no chance of surviving the grenade blasts). Aldrich refused to cut the scene in order to show the horrors of war.

Did you like the film?