Beside the drama there is also humour in 'The Longest Day'. Sean Connery steals some scenes as a scotish soldier; 'Flanagan is back!'. But André Bourvil makes the most of his scene as a hero of the resistance that listens at the radio and learns that the invasion is imminent. In one take, he listens to the radio, gets his soup, looks absent-minded for his firemen's helmet, places the 'talking' radio in the dresser and leaves his mother behind who listens astonished at the door of the dresser. An other unforgettable scene is with Gerd Froebe as 'sergeant Kaffeeklatsch' on his horse. When he observes the gathering of the invasion fleet and the first shot is fired, he runs like hell, and an almost liberated Frenchman waves like a lunatic his flag, a perfect target to aim at!

A little lost area in 'The Longest Day', is UTAH Beach, landing spot for the 4th Division. There is an introduction with Henry Fonda, as Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who was supposed to land with the first wave as Assistant Commander. Roosevelt was suffering from arthritis at this time and was not fit, in the eyes of top brass, to lead his men into UTAH Beach. But Roosevelt was determent and did not want to miss out on this show. So he gets the ‘go-ahead’.

By coincidence, the first wave lands in an area of UTAH beach which was less under German fire. Despite they have landed on the wrong spot, Roosevelt decides ‘to start the war right here’.

Were the scenes at UTAH Beach minor, to say the least, the Canadian participation at JUNO Beach was completely ignored. Despite the fact that the Canadian troop had moved the furthest inland at the end of June 6. There is a scene however, that took place on JUNO, but was now reenacted at SWORD Beach. Beachmaster Commander Colin Maud (Kenneth More) was directing the traffic from the beach. In the movie he has as a sidekick a bulldog called Winston (in real life it was a German Shepherd). Kenneth More loaned from Colin Maud his 'shillelagh' (a stick). With this ‘stick’ he hits a bonnet from unwilling Bren Carrier. Small detail,… Kenneth More has four stripes (Captain) instead of the three, for Commander.

A returning ‘side-gag’ is of a German officer who tries to put on his boots during the para landings in the night. He struggles to get in those things, when he sees that he has them the wrong way around! When he steps outside with his boots still on the wrong feet, we see a British paratrooper with his knife ready for the ‘kill’. At the end of the movie we see how it ended. Richard Burton, downed and wounded RAF pilot Fl.Off. David Campbell, meets a lost paratrooper, 'Dutch'Schultz (a roll by Richard Beymer), from the American 82nd Airborne Division. Burton points at the dead German officer and tells the para of the boots on the wrong feet. This raises the question,… who dropped the dead German officer in the American sector? It is at least a distant of almost a 100-km from the British sector. The producers placed a German motorcycle near the dead German, but is still very unlikely that this officer had by then not noticed the ‘wrong’ boots,…

After the location-scene's were 'in the can', one filmcrew left for 'Studio de Boulogne' in Paris. Here 53 sets were built to shoot the final scenes. Another team left for Île de Ré, a island beneath Brittany, near the town of La Rochelle, to shoot the final sequence of OMAHA Beach. The beach was perfect with the original bunkers that once protected the harbor of La Rochelle. Over a period of ten months the 4000.000 English pounds costly picture was made. Three directors were involved in making it all happen. For the American scenes there was Andrew Marton, Ken Annakin did the British scenes and Bernard Wick took credit for the German scenes. And Zanuck himself did some directing when it was needed.

The movie had a star cast of 50 actors and thousands extra’s (which ‘ate’ 875.000 dollars out of the budget). There were no German extra’s, the German soldiers were played by French, American or British soldiers. There were 23.000 soldiers at the producers their disposal. There was so far is known just one Dutch actor in the movie, Arnold Gelderman. He is the German on the railway track when he is jumped by Janine Boltard (Irene Demick), from the French resistance, in the struggle on the railway bridge they go over the side into the water (see next page with the movie stills).

There were also a great number of ‘actors’ that are absent of the credits, this were the so called paradummies, better known with their nickname; ‘Rupert’. During the early hours of D-Day some 500 were dropped into Normandy at four locations, among them, six real SAS commando’s. The commando’s had brought with them a sound system with recordings of exploding grenades and bombs.

The original puppets were around 65 centimeter (two feet) long and made out of burlap, filled with straw and sand. When the puppets landed onto the ground, they were suppost to ignite and burn, so the Germans were unaware what realy landed and deceived for the time being. For the ‘The Longest Day’ a bunch of very nice rubber examples were produced, some had even arms that moved to trigger the mechanism to activate of the charches to simulate arms fire. The deception, under the name Operation Titanic, was a succes, but the six SAS commando’s were later picked up by the Germans.

For the special effects they burned 25.000 old tires and fifteen tonnes of explosives were brought to detonation, 600.000 blank bullets and not to mention the hundreds of thousands litres of fuel! But it was well worth the effort, the special effects received an Oscar in 1962, picked up by Robert MacDonald en Jacques Maumont.

Beside the Oscar for 'special effects', there was also an Oscar for Jean Bourgoin and Walter Wottitzde for the 'Cinematography'. The movie was also nominated for the 'Editing' by Samuel E. Beetley (not won) and nominated for 'Best Picture', but that one went to 'Lawrence of Arabia'. Worldwide the 'The Longest Day' took 50.000.000 milion dollar at the box office, and saved Studio Fox from bankruptcy after the tremendous losses for the movie 'Cleopatra'.

The arguments between producer Zanuck and writer Cornelius Ryan were solved by Elmo Williams (associate producer) when he became mediator in the conflict. Williams collected the pieces of script Ryan produced, and delivered them to Zanuck, and brought the scripts back when Zanuck had made notes and suggestions. The other writers, James Jones and Romain Gary wrote additional scenes and also made adjustments. But Cornelius Ryan his name was given the only 'screenplay credit', and the other writers were mentioned as writers of 'additional scenes'.

Eddie Albert .... Col. Thompson
Paul Anka .... US Army Ranger
Arletty .... Madame Barrault
Patrick Barr .... Group Capt. J.N. Stagg
Jean-Louis Barrault .... Father Roulland
Richard Beymer .... Private ‘Dutch’ Schultz
Hans Christian Blech .... Major Werner Pluskat
Bourvil .... Mayor of Colleville
Lyndon Brook .... Lt. Walsh
Richard Burton .... Fl.Off. David Campbell
Red Buttons .... Private John Steele
Sean Connery .... Private Flanagan
John Crawford .... Colonel Caffey
Mark Damon .... Private Harris
Ray Danton .... Captain Frank
Irina Demick .... Janine Boitard
Fred Dur .... US Army Ranger Major
Fabian .... US Army Ranger
Mel Ferrer .... Gen. Robert Haines
Frank Finlay .... Private Coke
Henry Fonda.... Brigadier Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
Steve Forrest .... Captain Harding
Gert Fröbe .... Sergeant 'Kaffeeklatsch'
Leo Genn .... Brigadier Gen. Parker
Henry Grace .... General Dwight D. Eisenhower
John Gregson .... British Padre
Paul Hartmann .... Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt
Ruth Hausmeister .... Frau Rommel

'Pretty Boy' Paul Anka as an US Ranger below Pointe du Hoc
Jack Hedley .... Briefing officer
Peter Helm .... Young GI
Michael Hinz .... Manfred Rommel
Werner Hinz .... Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Donald Houston .... RAF Pilot
Jeffrey Hunter .... Sgt. John Fuller
Karl John .... Luftwaffe General Wolfgang Hager
Curt Jürgens .... General Gunther Blumentritt
Alexander Knox .... Major General Walter Bedell Smith
Simon Lack .... Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory
Peter Lawford .... Lord Lovat
Fernand Ledoux .... Louis
Wolfgang Lukschy .... Colonel General Alfred Jodl
Christian Marquand .... Commander Philippe Kieffer
Dewey Martin .... Private Wilder
Roddy McDowall .... Private Morris
Michael Medwin .... Private Watney
John Meillon .... Rear Admiral Alan G. Kirk
Sal Mineo .... Private Martini
Robert Mitchum .... Brigadier Gen. Norman Cota
Kenneth More .... Captain Colin Maud
Richard Munch .... General Erich Marcks
Edmond O'Brien .... General Raymond O. Barton
Leslie Philips .... RAF Officer
Sian Phillips .... Wren

'All American boy',... Robert Wagner

Wolfgang Preiss .... Major General Max Pemsel
Ron Randell .... Joe Williams
Madeleine Renaud .... Mother Superior
Trevor Reid .... Field marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery
Heinz Reincke .... Major ‘Pips’ Priller
Georges Riviere .... Sergeant Guy de Montlaur
John Robinson .... Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsey
Norman Rossington .... Private Clough
Robert Ryan .... Brigadier Gen. James Gavin
Tommy Sands .... US Army Ranger
Ernst Schroder .... General Hans von Salmuth
George Segal .... US Army Ranger
Jean Servais .... Rear Admiral Jaujard
Heinz Spitzner .... Lieutenant Colonel Hellmuth Meyer
Rod Steiger .... Destroyer commander
Nicholas Stuart .... Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley
Richard Todd .... Major John Howard
Tom Tryon .... Lieutenant Wilson
Peter Van Eyck .... Lieutenant Colonel Ocker
Robert Wagner .... US Army Ranger
Richard Wattis .... British Soldier
John Wayne.... Lt.Col. Benjamin Vandervoort
Stuart Whitman .... Lieutenant Sheen
Georges Wilson .... Alexandre Renaud

The next pages contain still's from the movie.
Click below on the picture with Robert Mitchum (left)
and producer Darryl F. Zanuck.
(Notice the sigar in Mitchum his mouth, and also one between his fingers.)