When Cornelius Ryan's book 'The Longest Day' climbs on the bestseller list, Darryl F. Zanuck decides that the story must be made as a motion picture. Unfortunately were the book rights already sold to the French producer Raoul Levy. But Zanuck becomes after some negotiations the rights. But then starts the difficult search for wartime material. Especially German weapons are hard to find. In England they find a captured 20 mm cannon. A couple of 50 mm anti-airguns were secured from some bunkers near La Rochelle in France. From a museum in London they can loan a PIAT. Other museums as well were willing to loan German weapons to Zanuck. Still harder to find was rolling material and what they found had to be restored. In one scene they needed some Spitfires that attacked a German column. From the French ex-wartime pilot, Pierre Laureys, they rented a couple of Spitfires. Laurey's himself flew the Spitfire when they shot the 'shooting' scene, just as he did on June 6th, 1944, low and very fast! It was fortunate for Zanuck that he did not need a bigger armada of planes. The parachute droppings were under a heavy base of clouds and at night. To create the illusion, the sound effect of 'passing' planes was enough. They built two gliders, a British Horsa and an American Waco CG4A. The German 'Luftwaffe' consisted in the movie of two Bf 108's, because for the lack of the real thing. In reality it were WF 190's.

OMAHA Beach

As we talk about 'real', the location for OMAHA Beach was no longer useable to re-enact the American landings over there. Fortunate for Zanuck the 6de Fleet was at manoeuvre near Corsica. Twenty-five ships were available for him and 1600 marines stormed the Corsican beach. The filming became in danger when in August 1961 the Russians put up the 'Berlin Wall'. The co-operation of the American army was in jeopardy, the soldiers were more eager to fight the Russians than the 'Normandy' beach. There was even an investigation and later a change in policy between the Pentagon and Hollywood.

Ste-Mere-Eglise

The first real location were filming took place was Ste-Mere-Eglise. This is the location were the para-drop was re-enacted of the 82nd and the 101ste Airborne Division.

Behind the church they built a house that was on fire during that night (the real house stood at the place were now the museum is housed). It was one of the more dramatic scenes from 'The Longest Day', the parachutists in the flickering lights of the fire who came down around the church. Actor Red Buttons plays the part of Private John Steele. This paratrooper became hooked on the church tower. He hung helpless for some hours and was a witness to the horror below. To prevent some uneasiness under the locals, when they saw all those German uniforms (it was just 17 years after), a loudspeaker called out that it were all French actors and stuntmen! Lt Col Benjamin Vandervoort of the 82nd Airborne Division was played by John Wayne, who portrated a slow moving caricature of this Colonel.

Pointe du Hoc

After shooting completed at Ste-Mere-Eglise the crew left for Pointe du Hoc. Actors Robert Wagner and Paul Anka had to climb the steep cliff together with real US Rangers. The 'set-decorators' had little to do at this place. Everything was unchanged since June 1944. To protect the actors against the upcoming tide, they had a huge crane that operated a large platform that could move the 'Rangers' up and down (just as the camera crew).

Pegasus Bridge

While one team is filming at the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, another team is working at the Caen canal, near Benouville. Here is the re-enactment of the attack on the so called Pegasus Bridge. Especially for the occasion Zanuck brought Lord Lovat and Major over to this location. The two men had since that D-Day never seen each other again. In the movie the part of John Howard was played by Richard Todd and Lord Lovat was played by Peter Lawford.

Port-en-Bessin (Ouistreham)

Ouistreham was after the destruction in June 1944 completely rebuilt. Everything was changed and the production team moved to Port-en-Bessin to film the battle for the Casino over there. On the edge of the harbour of Port-en-Bessin they built a building that represented the Casino with the heavy gun in the basement. The building was constructed in a way that it would collapse in three faces. The set of 12.000 English pounds was totally destroyed. Several shots were filmed from a helicopter, because of this the people of Port-en-Bessin had to stay indoors for various hours.

The role of the Free French Commando's Com. Phillipe Kiefer, was played by Christian Marquand. Were the Allied actors played gung-ho, and were mostly good looking, the German cast were far more cliché Germans and played often a caricature of a soldier. Exeptions were Hans Christian Blech as Major Werner Pluskat and Werner Hinz as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. But nevertheless, they tried to give an honest image of the drama of D-DAY. To make it more authentic, the actors spoke in three languages, English, German and French. Beside the drama there was some room for humour. Sean Connery playes a 'walking tall' Scotsman: '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 a (almost) liberated Frenchman waves like a lunatic his flag, a perfect target to aim at!

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, a downed and wounded RAF pilot, meets a lost paratrooper 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.

After the location-scene's are 'in the can', one filmcrew left for 'Studio de Boulogne' in Paris. Here 53 sets were built to shoot the final scenes. Another team went to Ille de Re for some additional shots of OMAHA Beach. 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 made some directing when it was needed. Some 50 star-actors and thousands of 'extra's were cast (which took 350.000 pounds from the budget!). For the special effects they burned 25.000 old tires and fifteen tonnes of explosives were brought to detonation, not to mention the hundred of thousands litres of fuel! But it was well worth the effort, the special effects got an Oscar. The cinemaphotography got an Oscar as well. The picture was nominated for 'Best Picture', but that one went to 'Lawrence of Arabia'.