Ingrid Bergman was the first choice for the part of Mouche. The 'Hollywood Reporter' in November 1942 reported that mogul producer David O. Selznick approved the borrowing of its star Ingrid Bergman by Paramount Studios for this movie. By the late 1940s, the Selznick International company was making very few movies and became a talent agency by default, deriving needed income by loaning out its contract stars to other studios. Bergman, though, did not end up being in this picture.
Billy Wilder wanted the role of Cpl. John J. Bramble/Davos (ultimately played by Franchot Tone) to be played by Cary Grant, but Grant was unavailable.
Erich von Stroheim playing Field Marshall Erwin Rommel dictatorially insisted on garnishing his own military uniform and he got permission from the Paramount studio to design this costume as well as his hair & makeup. He studied photographs of Rommel and then made requests for specific equipment, clothing and props. These included authentic German field glasses, a whisk, and a 35mm Leica camera with actual film. These items were all fully functional, in working order and of the correct provenance. Stroheim maintained that his performance could be affected as an actor would know if the items he were wearing or using were not authentic. Director Billy Wilder queried him about the real film in the camera which wouldn't be seen by viewers with von Stroheim replying, "An audience always senses whether a prop is genuine or false." Rommel dressed casually and wore loose-fitting uniforms yet von Stroheim demanded that he wear "a uniform as it is supposed to be worn." Von Stroheim believed that Rommel never took off his cap in the desert sun and so did not have sunburn face make-up above his eyes.
1200 costume uniforms were manufactured for this movie even though it is a small war movie with no large battle set-pieces.
According to the book 'The Great Spy Films' by Leonard Rubinstein, " . . . this film was released in early 1943 shortly after the British victory at El Alamein in North Africa and incorporated some footage from that battle in its closing scenes, besides providing an imaginative explanation for that success."
All the lead characters in this movie are played by actors with a different nationality to that of their character. The British soldier Corporal John Bramble is played by American Franchot Tone; German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is played by Austrian-born Erich von Stroheim; the Egyptian hotel owner was played by Georgian Russian actor Akim Tamiroff; whilst the French chambermaid Mouche is played by American Anne Baxter.
Both of Billy Wilder's two only war films, Five Graves to Cairo and Stalag 17 received the same number of Academy Award nominations: three. Five Graves to Cairo received Oscar nominations in technical categories (Editing, b/w Interior Design, b/w Cinematography) whereas Stalag 17 received Oscar nominations in performance-related categories (Director, Actor, Supporting Actor), the latter winning Best Actor. Five Graves to Cairo and Stalag 17 were both released in years where another black-and-white World War II movie dominated at the Oscars: Casablanca winning three and From Here to Eternity winning eight.
Cinematographer John F. Seitz and Director Billy Wilder examined in detail a large number actual black-and-white photographs of the real locations of the settings featured in this film including battle shots so as to give the film the right look of authenticity.
Director Billy Wilder made two World War II pictures, both containing humor, and both filmed in black-and-white. This film was the first of the two, whilst Stalag 17 was the second, and made ten years after this movie.
Due to the success of their earlier film The Major and the Minor, screenwriter Charles Brackett and director Billy Wilder were allowed to produce their own pictures at Paramount. They searched through properties that the studio owned and came up with Lajos Biró's "Hotel Imperial" . Biro had written a number of film's for Ernst Lubitsch of whom Wilder was a big fan.
Film writer-director Cameron Crowe has described this film as precursor to the Indiana Jones movie franchise.
For the first shot of Erich von Stroheim playing Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in this film, director Billy Wilder filmed him in a close-up from the back of his neck as an establishment shot. Wilder said: "Standing with his stiff fat neck in the foreground he could express more than almost any actor with his face."
In this film, when Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) says to Mouche (Anne Baxter) that her trial will not be conducted under German law in order "to show you we are not the barbarians you think - according to your own law, the Code Napoleon", this is, according to Leonard Rubinstein in his book 'The Great Spy Films', a reference to von Stroheim's character Rauufenstein in La grande illusion. Moreover, according to the Virgin Film Guide, Otto Preminger's POW Camp Commandant character Colonel Oberst von Scherbach in Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder's other WW II movie) is also a play on Erich von Stroheim's similar character Captain von Rauffenstein in Jean Renoir's, La grande illusion.
Leonard Rubinstein in his book 'The Great Spy Films' writes that the scriptwriter and associate producer of this movie Charles Brackett commented on this film after seeing it several years after it was made. Brackett said that the movie had left him with "the dreadful smell of propaganda."
Most of the Nazi German soldiers are played by German actors except for Field Marshal Rommel who was played by Erich von Stroheim, an Austrian.
Much public interest was generated when it was announced that Erich von Stroheim would be playing Nazi German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in this picture.
On 13 December 1943, about just over six months after this film was first released in the USA, this movie's stars Anne Baxter and Franchot Tone reprized their characters of Mouche and Corporal John J. Bramble from this movie for a radio broadcast of a Lux Radio Theatre show.
On the first day that director Billy Wilder's hero, Erich von Stroheim arrived on set, Wilder ran to the wardrobe department to welcome him. He said: "This is a very big moment in my life . . . that I should now be directing the great Stroheim. Your problem, I guess, was that you were ten years ahead of your time." Von Stroheim replied: "Twenty."
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.