Audie Murphy is known as the most decorated US soldier of World War II. According to this film, when he applied for service with the Navy, the Marines and the Paratroopers, Audie Murphy was turned-down by all three military arms. Moreover, when he joined his combat unit, one of his superiors considered transferring him out of the company for being unfit for combat.
Audie Murphy is known as the most decorated US soldier of World War II. Among his twenty-seven American decorations were the Medal of Honor, the US's highest award for military conduct "above and beyond the call of duty," plus five decorations awarded by France and Belgium.
Audie Murphy originally declined the opportunity to portray himself in the movie, not wanting people to think that he was attempting to cash in on his role as a war hero. Murphy initially suggested his friend Tony Curtis to play him. They had worked together on three Westerns, Sierra, Kansas Raiders and The Cimarron Kid.
Audie Murphy received most of his military decorations before he had turned the ages of nineteen and twenty.
Audie Murphy's feats of heroism and much decorated status has likened him to be considered a World War II version of World War I's Sgt. Alvin Cullum York, whose feats of heroism and much decorated status was the subject of its own earlier Hollywood movie in Sergeant York.
Audie Murphy's war buddy Onclo Airheart was slated to play himself, but he declined due to the fact that the movie was to be shot during planting season.
A total of 50,000 rounds of ammunition, 300 pounds of TNT, 600 pounds of blasting powder and 10 cases of 40% dynamite were required for the filming of the battle scenes.
According to the 'Variety Movie Guide', Audie Murphy " . . . gets into the army in 1942 at 18. In 1943, Murphy became a replacement in Company B, 15th Infantry Regiment, Third Division, 7th Army, in North Africa, and served with the unit throughout the war in Tunisia, Italy, France, Germany and Austria. During that time he rose from PFC to company commander, was wounded three times, personally killed 240 Germans, and was one of the only two soldiers left in the original company at the end of the war. His decorations total 24, from the Congressional Medal of Honor on down."
According to this film, Audie Murphy fought in seven major campaigns during World War II and received the Bronze Star Medal and the same again with a Bronze Service arrowhead, three Purple Heart medals, the Legion of Merit, two Silver Star Medals, a Distinguished Service Cross; from France, two Croix de Guerre medals with Palms and the Legion of Honour Chevalier. On the 9th of August 1945, just after his nineteenth birthday, Murphy was awarded the US Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest honour that a soldier can be awarded.
Average Shot Length (ASL) = 8 seconds
In the movie, Audie Murphy does his one-man standoff on top of a medium M-4 Sherman tank whereas in real life he did his one-man standoff on top of an M-18 Hellcat tank destroyer.
Many of the battle scenes were re-used for Universal Studio's later picture The Young Warriors.
One of the combat sequences in this movie centered around a fight to capture a German position hold up in an Italian farmhouse. This included a scene where two German soldiers, manning a MG42 machine gun, are filmed firing belts of ammunition at the attacking Americans. Apparently when the first takes of this action were made, using blank ammunition, it didn't look 'real' enough. This perceived flaw was eventually resolved by filming two GIs from Fort Lewis, dressed as German troops, firing live ammunition from the machine gun. It was the only way that they could think of to get the impressive muzzle flash when the weapon was fired.
The Holtzwihr Standoff took place in cold and messy conditions of rain, mud and snow but in this movie the conditions are not this, they are sunny.
The movie is said to be responsible for popularizing the term "Dogface" in popular culture. Dogface is the term used for describing foot soldiers of the US Army Infantry, frequently in respect of World War II. Also, this movie features a song entitled, "The Dogface Soldier".
This movie was a box-office hit for Universal Studios and its record was apparently not broken until Jaws.