Display MoreI like that, although the cast credits are announced as being in alphabetical order, to add impact Duke’s name appears last (below Stuart Whitman’s, for example).
The reason Duke got the special credit was due to his refusing to work for Daryl F. Zanuck. Several years prior Zanuck said some unkind words towards Wayne…who took it personally and said he would not work for Zanuck.
When casting the role of Col. Vandervoort Zanuck specifically wanted Duke…who refused. Zanuck paid every credited actor $25k no matter how big or small the part. Zanuck kept after Duke who told his agent he would only do it for $250k…ten times what everyone else received.
The agent not only got the $250k salary demand but also the special credit at the end.
Not bad for something like three days work on the set. The agent earned his percentage on that one.
Posts from OriginalMexicanBob in thread „The Longest Day (1962)“
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"The Longest Day" was filmed in black & white due to cost reasons as much as any...the movie "Cleopatra" was sucking up most of the financing of the studio (and almost bankrupted it) at the time and the war film had to cut costs where it could...and even then it was the most expensive black & white film ever done until "Schindler's List" in the '90s. I've read that Darryl Zanuck had to provide his own money to keep it going and complete it as he desired...true or not I can't say. Maybe it's an urban legend.
There was a colorized version of the film released in the early '90s on videotape but other releases have all be in black & white...even blu-ray versions.
