Burt Lancaster recalled that Gary Cooper would object to anything in the script that implied his character was anything other than good, and demand it be changed.
Burt Lancaster was quite happy to cede top billing to Gary Cooper, knowing that the older actor had more box office pull than he did.
Gary Cooper was badly hurt when he was struck by fragments from a bridge that had been blown up and the special-effects team had used too much explosives.
Gary Cooper was taking so much medication that he was impotent for the duration of filming. He also hated working with Sara Montiel, whom he claimed smelled bad and never washed her hair.
Gary Cooper was unimpressed by the script, pointing out that his character - a former Confederate colonel - would have been fighting for Maximilian instead of Juarez.
Clark Gable warned Gary Cooper not to work with Burt Lancaster, saying, "That young guy will blow you off the screen." Ironically, Gable himself later worked with Lancaster in Run Silent Run Deep.
Eli Wallach has said that the Mexican government was so upset about the negative portrayal of Mexicans in the film that they insisted that the making of The Magnificent Seven be monitored by censors.
Charles Bronson and Ernest Borgnine decided to go for cigarettes during filming. This meant saddling up in costume, side arms and all, and riding to the nearest town. On the way, the pair was waylaid by a truck full of armed Federales who mistook them for bandits and held them at gunpoint.
Although portrayed by 54-year-old George Macready, the real Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico was only 34 when he died.
First film released in the "Superscope" wide screen process. Shot at a conventional 1.37:1 aspect ratio, the film was cropped to 2:1 in post production and then given a Cinemascope compatible (2x) squeeze and blown up to normal frame height. Superscope was designed to acheive anamorphic prints from standard flat 35mm negatives. The MGM dvd approximates the 2:1 release print aspect ratio. Superscope was the fore-runner to "Super 35".
For a film made in the mid 1950's, this film has quite fast cutting rate. In 90 minutes of action, the film contains about 1130 edits and other transitions. This equates to an average shot length of just under 5 seconds.
One of Robert Aldrich's personal favourites of his films, he particularly enjoyed the fact that it had a hero and an anti-hero.
One of the first major Hollywood films to be made on location in Mexico. Film-making legislation in Mexico meant that a local director had to be involved in the production in some capacity, though he wasn't actually used.
Produced by Burt Lancaster's own production company for $1.7 million, it went on to become a sizeable hit, grossing over $11 million.
The first film to be made in the SuperScope process.
The Mexican authorities were appalled at the way their citizens were depicted in the film so any subsequent Hollywood productions had to conform to some strict rules. This explains why in The Magnificent Seven, the locals are all wearing pristine white clothes.
This film is sometimes called the "first spaghetti western," due to its reputed influence on the Italian directors such as Sergio Leone who popularized the genre.