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Alfred Hitchcock revealed on The Dick Cavett Show (1968) that 3,200 birds were trained for the movie. He said the ravens were the cleverest, and the seagulls were the most vicious.
When audiences left the U.K. premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, they were greeted by the sound of screeching and flapping birds from loudspeakers hidden in the trees to scare them further.
Also attending the London premiere were two flamingos, fifty red cardinals and starlings, and six penguins.
Rod Taylor claims that the seagulls were fed a mixture of wheat and whiskey. It was the only way to get them to stand around so much.
The classic scene in which Tippi Hedren watches birds attacking the townsfolk was filmed in the studio from a phone booth. When Melanie opens the phone-booth door, a bird trainer had trained gulls that were taught to fly at it. Surviving photos of the shooting of the scene were published in the book "Hitchcock at Work" by Bill Krohn.
Tippi Hedren was cut in the face by a bird in one of the shots.
When this movie aired on NBC in the U.S. on January 6, 1968, it became the highest rated movie shown on television up to that point. The record held until Love Story (1970) overtook it on October 1, 1972.
One bird, named Archine, really seemed to dislike Taylor, who played Mitch Brenner. The feathered star went out of his way to attack the actor, even when the cameras weren't rolling. "Every morning, if we were on the set together, he'd come over and bite me," Taylor revealed, "I hated him and he hated me."
While the studio spent an estimated $200,000 on creating mechanical birds for the film, the majority of the birds seen on screen are real.

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Ranked #8 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Gangster" in June 2008.
This film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 32 critic reviews.
A real machine gun with real bullets were used in the movie for gunfights scenes.
On the set one day, James Cagney stared at Jean Harlow's nipples and asked, likely in perfect innocence and good humor, "How do you keep those things up?" "I ice them," Harlow said, before trotting off to her dressing room to do just that.
Several versions exist of the origin of the notorious grapefruit scene, but the most plausible is the one on which both James Cagney and Mae Clarke agree: The scene, they explained, was actually staged as a practical joke at the expense of the film crew, just to see their stunned reactions. There was never any intention of ever using the shot in the completed film. Director William A. Wellman, however, eventually decided to keep the shot, and use it in the film's final release print.
According to James Cagney's autobiography, Mae Clarke's ex-husband, Lew Brice, enjoyed the "grapefruit scene" so much that he went to the movie theater every day just to watch that scene only and leave.
Because of the infamous grapefruit scene, for years afterward when dining in restaurants, fellow patrons would send grapefruit to James Cagney, which--almost invariably--Cagney would happily eat.

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The opening scene in the movie with Jim Stark and the toy monkey was improvised by James Dean after the production had been shooting for nearly 24 hours straight. He asked Nicholas Ray to roll the camera, that he wanted to do something. Ray obliged and the improvisation went on to become the famous opening scene.
Although playing a teenager, James Dean was actually 24 when the movie was filmed. Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, however, were of the right age.
Based on the strong sneak preview response to the film, Warner Bros. proposed a long-term contract for James Dean.
The only one of James Dean's three credited film roles for which he did not receive an Oscar nomination.
James Dean was injured several times while shooting the switchblade fight, during which a real weapon was used.
James Dean died on September 30, 1955, nearly a month before this film was released on October 27, 1955.
All three lead actors--James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Natalie Wood--died prematurely under tragic circumstances; Dean died in an automobile accident in September 1955, Mineo was stabbed to death on February 12, 1976, and Wood drowned in the late autumn of 1981.
As of March 2023, Jack Grinnage, who plays Moose, is the only surviving cast member.

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The character Nevada Smith was supposed to be 16. He was played by 35-year-old Steve McQueen.
There were complaints that Steve McQueen looked older than the actress playing his mother in this film.
Steve McQueen was only eight years younger than Gene Evans, who played his father.
Although she is billed above the title, Suzanne Pleshette does not appear until the 72-minute mark.
This was the first Western project for Steve McQueen after Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958).
Suzanne Pleshette once said in an interview that her love scenes with Steve McQueen in this movie were horribly awkward for both of them, as they had enjoyed a completely platonic friendship since she first came to Hollywood and he had very much taken on the role of big brother to her.
The scene where Steve McQueen gets the chair slammed into his face was performed with a barrier of thick bulletproof glass that was positioned between McQueen and the chair. This greatly enhanced the "impact" of the scene to make it extremely realistic to the viewer, and yet safe for McQueen.

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The bridge cost $250,000 to build. Construction began before anyone had been cast.
The elephants employed in helping build the bridge would take breaks every four hours and lie around in the water, whether the crew wanted them to or not.
To keep costs down, producer Sam Spiegel decided not to hire any extras, using crew members and Ceylon locals instead. This meant that some of the British prisoners were really natives of the region wearing make-up to appear Caucasian.
The eight months of filming began in October 1956. A scouting expedition of the real River Kwai had shown that it was an unsuitable location for filming, as it appeared to be nothing more than a trickling stream. The production finally settled on a tiny village called Kitulgula in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The site was remote, and a compound of bungalows had to be built for the crew.
There were no facilities on the island of Ceylon to process film rushes, so the day's filming had to be flown to London to be processed, and then flown back out to Ceylon.
After the final scene was shot, producer Sam Spiegel shipped the film footage on five different planes to minimize the risk of loss.
Historically, the real River Kwai ran parallel to the real railroad line, and the World War II bridge was built over the Mae Klong River next door. This river was re-named the Kwai a few years after the movie, some believe because of its newfound fame.

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Judy Garland had to wear a painful corset-style device around her torso so that she would appear younger and flat-chested, as she was 16 years old at the time of filming, playing the role of a pre-adolescent child.
Judy Garland could only do 4 hours on set as she was at school at the time and did 3 hours being educated when she was not playing Dorothy.
The Munchkins are portrayed by The Singer Midgets, named not for their musical abilities but for Leo Singer, their manager. The troupe came from Europe, many of them were Jewish and a number of them took advantage of the trip to stay in the US in order to escape the Nazis. Professional singers dubbed most of their voices, as many of the Midgets couldn't speak English and/or sing well. Only two are heard speaking with their real-life voices--the ones who give Dorothy flowers after she has climbed into the carriage.
Many shots were trimmed down or edited out of the film because they were too intense for families and children. In particular, one deleted shot shows the tornado completely enveloping the farmhouse. Also, later in the film a lot of The Wicked Witch of the West's scenes were either trimmed or deleted entirely, as Margaret Hamilton's performance was thought to be too frightening for audiences.
In 1939 Montreal, Canada, lifted its law restricting minors under 16 from admission to theaters, presumably without an accompanying adult. This was done exclusively for this film and apparently sent a rush of children to theaters, according to a 1939 issue of "Variety." Earlier that year, Disney had unsuccessfully attempted to have the ban lifted for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The ban had been passed in response to the 1927 Laurier Palace Theatre fire, which killed 78 children.
According to lead Munchkin Jerry Maren, the "little people" on the set were paid $50 per week for a six-day work week, while Toto, the dog,  received $125 per week.
Margaret Hamilton, a single mother, got into an argument with the studio over guaranteed time to work, only agreeing to take the role of the Wicked Witch three days before filming. Ironically, although she finally got an agreement for five weeks of work, she ended up working on the film for three months.
Forty-four million people tuned into its first television broadcast on November 3, 1956.
There was a tornado in Kansas on the day of Judy Garland's death.

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Hattie McDaniel became the first Black person to be nominated for - and win - an Academy Award.
First color film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
At nearly four hours long, this is the longest running of all motion pictures to win the prestigious Academy Award for Best Picture.
Barbara O'Neil was only 28 when she appeared as Ellen O'Hara (Scarlett's mother). Vivien Leigh was 25 when she appeared as Scarlett, who is only 16 at the beginning of the film.
Until her death on July 26, 2020, at 104, Dame Olivia de Havilland was the lone survivor of the four principal leads since the death of Vivien Leigh in 1967. De Havilland was the only major cast member to live to celebrate the 70th and 80th anniversaries of the picture's premiere on December 15, 2009 and 2019.
If box-office receipts were adjusted for inflation, it would be the top-grossing movie of all time; Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) would only be the second most successful movie of all time. According to the Guinness World Records homepage, the total gross in 2012 figures for "GWTW" would be $4,401,358,554.94 in 2012.
During filming, Vivien Leigh reportedly smoked four packets of cigarettes a day. Clark Gable smoked three packs a day throughout his career.
Vivien Leigh worked for 125 days and received about $25,000. Clark Gable worked for 71 days and received over $120,000.
The four principals were billed on the film's posters in this order: Clark Gable, followed by Leslie Howard and Dame Olivia de Havilland and then "presenting" Vivien Leigh. This changed when Leigh won the Oscar.
Clark Gable disliked this, his most famous film, which he regarded as "a woman's picture."
After the film finished shooting there were 88 hours of footage.

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This movie wasn't shown in Russia until 1994.
Making the movie took 2 years and over 800 craftsmen in three countries. The final production budget was $15 million, three times what the movie's backers had agreed to.
The re-creation of Moscow on a Spanish studio lot took 18 months to achieve.
Omar Sharif had to have his eyes taped back daily and his hair straightened to disguise his Egyptian looks. He also had his hairline shaved up about two to three inches and his skin waxed, a process which had to be repeated every three days.
Dr. Yuri Zhivago's and Lara's first lines of dialogue with each other don't happen until one hour and 21 minutes into the movie (counting the overture and opening credits).
Initially, this movie failed to make much impact at the box office, probably due to the critics' lukewarm reception. The first three weeks returns were considered a disaster, despite $1 million spent on publicity. Director David Lean remarked that "you could hurl boulders in the theater and not hurt anyone." Gradually, audiences started to pick up, probably due to the popularity of Maurice Jarre's "Lara's Theme."
Despite its highly diverse international cast, the movie contains almost no Russian actors and actresses, or even actors and actresses of Russian heritage.
After Gone with the Wind (1939), this is the second most profitable movie in MGM's history.
Jane Fonda turned down the role of Lara because she didn't want to go to Spain for nine months. Several weeks later she changed her mind and told her agent she wanted to do it. By then Julie Christie had been signed to play Lara. In 2014, Fonda said that of all the movies she turned down, this one is the one she regrets the most.

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Many of the actors who played the Nazis were in fact German Jews who had escaped from Nazi Germany.
Rick's Cafe was one of the few original sets built for the film, the rest were all recycled from other Warner Bros. productions due to wartime restrictions on building supplies.
(at around 38 mins) Rick never says "Play it again, Sam." He says: "You played it for her, you can play it for me. If she can stand it, I can. Play it!" The incorrect line has become the basis for spoofs in movies such as A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Play It Again, Sam (1972).
The difference in height between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman changes throughout the film. This is because Bergman was actually one to two inches taller than Bogart. To create the illusion that it was vice versa, Michael Curtiz had Bogart stand on boxes and sit on pillows in some shots, or had Bergman slouch down (as when she sits on the couch in the "franc for your thoughts" scene).
With the death of Madeleine Lebeau on May 1, 2016, there are no surviving members of the credited cast. As of December 31, 2016, the only surviving person from the cast and crew is Robert Aisner, who is credited as miscellaneous crew and worked as the technical advisor. He was born March 23, 1908. There is no record of his death, but if he is still alive, he would be the oldest man in the world.
Michèle Morgan asked for $55,000, but Hal B. Wallis refused to pay it when he could get Ingrid Bergman for $25,000.

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Saul Bass reportedly produced around three hundred versions of the film's poster before Stanley Kubrick was satisfied.
During filming, Stanley Kubrick made the cast watch "Eraserhead (1977)," "Rosemary's Baby (1968)," and "The Exorcist (1973)" to put them in the right frame of mind.
There were so many changes to the script during shooting (a scene change was made almost daily) that Jack Nicholson claimed he stopped reading it. He would read only the new pages that were given to him each day. Nicholson also said that eventually, when presented with a revised scene he would throw it in the trash, knowing another was coming anyway.
For the scene in which Jack breaks down the bathroom door, the props department built a door that could be easily broken. However, Jack Nicholson had worked as a volunteer fire marshal and tore it apart far too easily. The props department were then forced to build a stronger door.
Anjelica Huston lived with Jack Nicholson during the time of the shooting. She recalled that, due to the long hours on the set and Stanley Kubrick's trademark style of repetitive takes, Nicholson would often return from a day's shooting, walk straight to the bed, collapse onto it, and would immediately fall asleep.
The shot of the tennis ball rolling into Danny's toys took fifty takes to get right.
According to Variety Magazine, the film took almost 200 days to shoot. However, according to assistant editor Gordon Stainforth, it took much more, nearly a year. The film was originally supposed to take seventeen weeks, but it ultimately took fifty-one.
On the DVD commentary track for Making 'The Shining' (1980), Vivian Kubrick reveals that Shelley Duvall received "no sympathy at all" from anyone on the set. This was apparently Stanley Kubrick's tactic in making her feel utterly hopeless. This is most evident in the documentary when he tells Vivian, "Don't sympathize with Shelley." Kubrick then goes on to tell Duvall, "It doesn't help you."
Despite his reported abuse of Shelley Duvall on-set, Stanley Kubrick spoke very highly of her ability in interviews, and found himself quite impressed by her performance in the finished film.

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The highest-grossing western at the box office made and released during the 1980s.
This movie marked the return to the big screen of Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" nameless drifter-type character.
This movie was Clint Eastwood's first western since The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), a gap of nine years, and his last prior to Unforgiven (1992), a gap of seven years.
Apparently, the long gap between Clint Eastwood making westerns was caused by a mid-life allergy Eastwood had to horses.
This was the only Clint Eastwood western of the 1980s.
The first horse assigned to Richard Kiel (James Bond's Jaws) collapsed the first time he climbed aboard. He was then assigned a stronger horse.
After Club (Richard Kiel) gets hit between the legs, Preacher (Clint Eastwood) helps him back to his horse. Richard, due to back problems, had to use a step that was on the side of the horse to get onto his saddle. If you look you can see Richard take a step onto the platform before getting on the horse.
During shooting, Clint Eastwood sustained what he describes as the worst injury he has ever had on-set when a horse he was riding fell through thin ice and launched him forward. Clint suffered a dislocated shoulder.
In one scene, Clint Eastwood pulls his gun with his left hand because of a shoulder injury he suffered by falling off of a horse during the making of this film.