Trivia for
Kelly's Heroes (1970) More at IMDbPro »

• Director Brian G. Hutton was forced to make a number of cuts to suit the then MGM boss James T. Aubrey.
  
  
• Donald Sutherland became seriously ill during filming on location in Yugoslavia. His wife received a telegram telling her to come immediately but warning her that he would probably be dead before she arrived.
  
  
• John Landis was a production assistant on this film. He also appears as an extra (he was one of the three nuns).
  
  
• Mike Curb, who wrote the lyrics to the movie's theme song "Burning Bridges," served as lieutenant governor of California between 1978 and 1982.
  
  
• The movie was mainly filmed in Yugoslavia because the Yugoslavian army still had a large quantity of Sherman tanks in 1970.
  
  
• The "Tiger" tanks used in the film were actually Russian T-34 tanks which had been specially modified to look like Tiger tanks. This is apparent when you look at the suspension of the tanks (T-34s used a modified Christie suspension, whereas the Tigers' wheels were much more elaborate.)
  
  
• A record was made of Clint Eastwood singing "Burning Bridges", the theme song from the film, it was released as a 45 on Certron Records, catalog number #C-10010, produced by Dickey Lee and Allen Reynolds, (with the B-side of "When I Loved Her" also sung by Clint Eastwood, and written by Kris Kristofferson)
  
  
• The 'key' symbol on the tiger tanks denotes that they are attached to the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte (Body guard unit) Adolf Hitler."
  
  
• Gutowski carries and uses a Russian sniper rifle, a Mosin Nagant M91/30.
  
  
• Kelly, Big Joe and the other recon soldiers wear the shoulder patch of the 35th Infantry Division, which was fighting in the area of Nancy, France, in late summer 1944.
  
  
• Oddball's division is the "Super Sixth", the 6th Armored Division.
  
  
• The noise made by electric motors of the Tigers' turrets was later used for the movements of the power lifters in Aliens (1986).
  
  
• Film is based upon a true incident. The caper was covered in a book called "Nazi Gold" by an author named Sayer. The heist was perpetrated by a combinations of renegade Nazi, and American officers. It was also listed as the "biggest" robbery ever in the Guiness Book of Records, in the 1960's.
  
  

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