Best movie trivia of 1958

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The Vikings picture

Trivia: The three Viking ships in the film were designed using blueprints for an actual Viking ship salvaged from the water and restored by a Viking museum in Norway. It turned out that the boats built for the film were too accurate, because the modern actors were taller than their historical counterparts. Every second oar hole had to be plugged so the modern men would have room to row with a full oar stroke. Otherwise, they would hit the backs of the oarsmen seated in front of them when pushing the oar handles forward to start each new stroke.

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South Pacific picture

Trivia: Director Joshua Logan originally wanted Elizabeth Taylor to play Nellie.

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The Big Country picture

Trivia: Burl Ives plays Rufus Hannassey, the father of Buck Hannassey (Chuck Connors). In real life, Ives was only 11 years older than Connors.

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Ice Cold In Alex picture

Trivia: The Ice Cold in Alex refers to an Ice Cold Carlsberg lager when they reach their destination - the final scene, where they get their ice cold lager was later used by Carlsberg in an advertising campaign.

Jeff Walker

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof picture

Trivia: Brick's (Paul Newman) latent homosexuality seems to be purposely avoided in the movie's screenplay, as opposed to the original Williams play. Probably so as not to offend sensitive 50's audiences. Modern audiences will more than likely pick up the signs and wonder '...is he?'.

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The Old Man and the Sea picture

Trivia: After Ernest Hemingway guided two extremely expensive (and failed) offshore excursions for original marlin-fishing footage, Warner Brothers settled for existing footage of a world-record marlin caught off the coast of Peru by Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. His taut, heavy-duty fishing line can be seen bouncing wildly, high in the air, in the scene where the marlin finally breaches (even though the Old Man's hand-line is pretty much stationary and angled low to the ocean surface).

Charles Austin Miller

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The Inn of the Sixth Happiness picture

Trivia: The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness tells the story of Gladys Aylward, an English missionary in China. The casting of Ingrid Bergman in the role was quite amazing, especially considering that Gladys Aylward was still alive at the time. Ingrid Bergman, who exuded glamour throughout the movie, was 5' 9" tall, had blonde hair and retained her native Swedish accent. Gladys Aylward was of rather plain appearance, stood a mere 4' 10" tall, had black hair and spoke with a cockney accent.

Rob Halliday

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Carry on Sergeant picture

Trivia: The first film in the "Carry On" series. It had not originally been planned as the start of a movie series, but after its success at the box-office, producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas set about a further project with "Carry On Nurse" (1959), which was enormously successful. The "Carry On" series of films evolved after that.

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Dunkirk picture

Trivia: When the destroyer is bombed next to the mole, the shots of it sinking are of the corvette Compass Rose from The Cruel Sea.

cachalot

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