Trivia for
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) More at IMDbPro »

• Al Pacino and Chris Sarandon's phone conversation was improvised.
  
  
• John Cazale's role as Sal was originally intended for an 18-year-old, which was the age of the real Sal.
  
  
• Frank Pierson wrote his Oscar-winning script around only 12 sequences.
  
  
• The real bank robber (John Wojtowicz) had watched The Godfather (1972) the day he robbed the Chase Manhattan bank to get ideas. Both Al Pacino and John Cazale were in "The Godfather".
  
  
• The real robbers got $213,000 in the robbery.
  
  
• After the initial title sequence (Elton John, "Amoreena") there is no background or incidental music on the soundtrack.
  
  
• The outdoor sequences were actually filmed in cold weather. So that their breath would not be visible, the actors placed ice in their mouths before each take.
  
  
• In the original script, Sonny and his trans-sexual lover were supposed to take part in a scene outside the bank in which a heart-felt goodbye was to take place along with a kiss. Al Pacino refused to do this, claiming it would take away from the phone conversation between Sonny and Leon. Frank Pierson was forced to make appropriate changes. This resulted in the just telephone conversation instead.
  
  
• Halfway through the production, Al Pacino collapsed from exhaustion and had to be hospitalized for a short time. After production was completed, he decided to stop doing films for a while and return to stage work.
  
  
• Al Pacino's performance as Sonny Wortzik is ranked #4 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
  
  
• The movie's line "Attica! Attica!" was voted as the #86 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
  
  
• The entire film is mostly improvised, though around the script. After rehearsing the script for weeks with his cast, Sidney Lumet took the improvisations that were made while rehearsing and made that the official screenplay.
  
  
• According to his authorized biography Al Pacino quit the film at one point and his role was offered to Dustin Hoffman.
  
  
• The Jet that Sonny, Sal and the hostages are to board at the airport is a CV -990 and the airline is Modern Air. Modern air went out of business the year the film was released which was 1975.
  
  
• The original working title was "Boys in the Bank." Director Sidney Lumet hated it because he thought it made the film appear to be a "light, fluffy comedy," and he had it changed to "Dog Day Afternoon."
  
  
• In the 1972 "Life" magazine article that inspired the film, P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore describe robber John Wojtowicz as "a dark, thin fellow with the broken-faced good looks of an Al Pacino or a Dustin Hoffman". Al Pacino, of course, played the role based on Wojtowicz, and when he nearly quit the film early on, the role was offered to Dustin Hoffman.
  
  
• The production shoot lasted 7 weeks with crews and cast working day and night. Due to director Sidney Lumet's speedy style of working, the film was completed 3 weeks ahead of schedule.
  
  
• Although he had initially agreed to play the part of Sonny, Al Pacino told Sidney Lumet near the start of production that he couldn't play it. Pacino had just completed production on The Godfather: Part II (1974) and was physically exhausted and depressed after the shoot. With his reliance on the Method, Pacino didn't relish the thought of working himself up to a state of near hysteria every day. Lumet unhappily accepted the actor's decision and dispatched the script to Dustin Hoffman. Pacino changed his mind when he heard that his rival was in the fray.
  
  
• John Cazale was cast at Pacino's insistence, despite being nowhere the age of Sal who was 18 in real life. Sidney Lumet was opposed to the idea because the actor was clearly inappropriate for the part. However, whenever Cazale came into read for the part, Lumet was sold on him within 5 minutes.
  
  
• The bank where the robbery took place was a branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank, at 450 Avenue P on the corner of East 3rd Street, in Gravesend, Brooklyn. It is today the home of the Brooklyn Medical Imaging Center.
  
  
• The bank's manager Robert Barrett later said he had more laughs in that one night than he'd had in weeks, while teller Shirley Bell said if they'd been her houseguests on a Saturday night it would have been hilarious.
  
  
• Penelope Allen, who plays the blonde chief bank teller, was a surrogate mother to Al Pacino. When he first left home in his teens to pursue acting, he lived with Allen and her husband for several years.
  
  
• Sidney Lumet is not normally a big fan of improvisation but he felt that it was appropriate for this film, allowing the robbers, cops and bank hostages to devise their own characters.
  
  
• Early in the writing proceedings, Frank Pierson considered dropping out of the project but had to continue because he had already spent his advance. Struggling to find a hook, he discovered while researching the story of Sonny Wojtowicz, that everyone who knew him had a contradictory story about the man. One thing they all agreed on was that Sonny was always saying "I'll take care of you. I'll make you happy." Pierson then knew that he had found his way in to the story.
  
  
• Pacino originally grew a mustache as a way to help him deal with the fact that he was playing a gay man. Looking at the first day's rushes with director Lumet, Pacino quickly realized that the mustache had to go.
  
  
• Other than fake sweat, there was no make-up used in the rest of the film.
  
  
• Director of photography Victor J. Kemper stuck with practical lighting for most of the film, relying on the fluorescents inside the bank.
  
  
• Pacino's now legendary shouting to the crowd of "Attica! Attica!" was an improvisation.
  
  
• Another notable improvisation in the film was John Cazale's answer to Al Pacino's question of where in the world he'd like to fly to. Pacino's surprised response was absolutely genuine as he had no idea what Cazale was going to say.
  
  
• Charles Durning spent much of the shoot, commuting from the set of this film in New York to the set of Robert Wise's _The Hindenburg (1975)_ in Los Angeles. Both Wise and Lumet would talk beforehand and agree on what days they needed the actor.
  
  
• Because of the outrageous quality of the real life story, director Lumet deliberately chose not to look at any of the footage of what actually happened that day. For that same reason, he decided not to use any of the real Sonny and Leon's wedding film footage as it was so over the top, it would have alienated viewers.
  
  
• For the lengthy phone conversation between Sonny and Leon - largely improvised by Pacino and Sarandon - director Lumet was faced with the problem of what to do when the film in the camera ran out as it was only good for 10 minutes worth of film. He solved that problem by starting a second camera up just as the first was due to finish.
  
  
• Lumet made Pacino do the phone conversation with Leon a second time even though his first take was perfect. Lumet's reasoning was because he saw how much the scene took out of his actor and he wanted Pacino to look exhausted, as the character had been holed up in a bank, and a highly stressful situation, all day.
  
  
• Harvey Fierstein, then aged about 16, is one of the gay demonstrators.
  
  
• The production was allowed only one night to film all their scenes at JFK Airport.
  
  
• Al Pacino first heard about the incident upon which the film is based when it was actually taking place. He was later bemused by reports after the event that the lead participant would make a great role for him.
  
  
• The real life incident became a part of police training on how to deal with hostage situations and crowds that were out of control.
  
  
• Writer Frank Pierson was unable to personally interview Sonny Wojtowicz because the latter wasn't able to reach an agreement on how much he should be paid for his story.
  
  
• Frank Pierson was unable to pick up his Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay because he was filming A Star Is Born (1976) at the time. Cast and crew stopped filming briefly to go for a quick drink at a nearby bar and then it was straight back to work.
  
  
• Sidney Lumet originally wanted Charles Durning to play the bank manager.
  
  
• Lance Henriksen auditioned for the part of the gay boyfriend.
  
  
• Sal at one point berates one of the bank tellers for smoking, saying that she will get cancer. Ironically, this is the very disease that killed John Cazale 3 years later.
  
  
• Judith Malina, who plays Sonny's mother, portrayed Grandma in The Addams Family (1991). Carol Kane, who plays Jenny, replaced Malina for the sequel, Addams Family Values (1993).
  
  

• SPOILER: Based on the real-life story of John Wojtowicz. On 22 August 1972 he and Salvatore Naturile attempted to rob a branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank on the corner of East Third Street and Avenue P in Brooklyn. They held nine bank employees hostage for over 14 hours. Wojtowicz was trying to get money for his lover, Ernest Aron, to have a sex change operation. Naturile was killed in the standoff and Wojtowicz received 20 years in a federal penitentiary. Wojtowicz was paid $7,500 plus one percent of the net movie profits for the movie rights for his story. He gave $2,500 to Aron to have the operation. Aron had the surgery and changed her name to Liz Eden. She died of AIDS in 1987. Wojtowicz was released from prison after serving seven years. He died of cancer in 2006.
  
  
• SPOILER: Even though this film is about a bank robbery, and has several firearms throughout the whole film, only two shots are fired. The first is when Sonny (Al Pacino) shoots his rifle at a window to scare off the police that are trying to go around the back of the bank. The second and final one is at the end when Murphy (Lance Henriksen) shoots Sal (John Cazale) in the head, resulting to his death.
  
  

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