Trivia for
1941 (1979) More at IMDbPro »

• Cameo: [James Caan] seen in the USO fight scene.
  
  
• The gas station where Captain Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi) lands to refuel was the same one used in 'Steven Spielberg’'s movie Duel (1971) (TV). Lucille Benson, who plays the gas station owner, appeared in Duel (1971) (TV) as the Snakerama owner at the same station.
  
  
• The scene where Wild Bill Kelso slips and tumbles off of the wing of his airplane as he is about to take off was a real accident. John Belushi slipped as he was climbing into the plane. It was kept in the movie because it fit his character.
  
  
• Reese and Foley are the names used by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale for any police officers or government agents in films they have written.
  
  
• The dialog between Claude and Herbie was written along the same lines as Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton. In fact, Jackie Gleason and Art Carney were offered the roles but Gleason refused, saying he would not and could not work with Carney any longer.
  
  
• Writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale met while attending the University of Southern California Film School. One of the USC inside jokes was naming the Nazi officer played by Christopher Lee von Kleinschmidt. One of USC's most famous school presidents was Rufus von Kleinschmidt and several buildings on campus bear his name. Ironically, one of von Kleinschmidt's many accomplishments was helping start the film school.
  
  
• It took so long to set up the final shot of the house falling down that cast and crew members actually started a betting pool on what day and time the shot would actually begin filming. Dan Aykroyd won the bet.
  
  
• John Belushi failed to show up on a couple of occasions because his nightlife made him too tired to work.
  
  
• Like real movies of the early 1940s, it was originally planned to have a card at the very end of the film asking the audience to "Buy War Bonds at This Theater."
  
  
• Wild Bill Kelso was originally a very minor character. It was expanded once John Belushi was signed for the role.
  
  
• Once Slim Pickens was signed on, the character of Hollis "Holly" Wood was greatly expanded.
  
  
• All told, seven directors were involved in some manner in making this movie: Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale wrote the film, John Milius helped with production of the film, and 'Steven Spielberg (I)' directed it. The other director involved was Brian De Palma. According to Millius in the DVD 'making of' documentary, DePalma contributed the gag of the Japanese asking Slim Pickens "Where's Hollywood?" to which Pickens, whose character name is Hollis "Holly" Wood would answer "I'm here." as a play on Abbott and Costello's "Who's on first?" routine. In addition, Samuel Fuller and John Landis have cameo roles.
  
  
• This was the first U.S. production to use the French-made Louma crane. It was going to be used for shooting the miniatures. The Louma proved to be so flexible that it was frequently used for the "A" camera.
  
  
• The first advance trailer for the film centered on John Belushi's character who was identified as "Wild Wayne Kelso". When the movie itself was shot, the character's name was changed to "Wild Bill Kelso".
  
  
• According to co-writer Bob Gale in the DVD documentary, many of the events in this movie are based on real incidents. The army really did put an anti-aircraft gun in the yard of a homeowner on the coast of Maine. There was an air raid false alarm over Los Angeles in which Civil Defense and Army weapons were fired into the air one night, thinking that they were being attacked by the Japanese. A Japanese submarine shelled a refinery on the California coast. There were also infamous Zoot Suit Riots between the Hispanic zoot-suiters and servicemen in May/June of 1943.
  
  
• To create the flash of explosions in the distant background, A.D. Flowers estimated that he used between 50,000 and 75,000 flashbulbs during the production.
  
  
• Cinematographer William A. Fraker was reportedly fired late in shooting due to creative differences with Steven Spielberg and John Milius. The remainder of the film was shot by Frank Stanley.
  
  
• This was the last project for special effects legend A.D. Flowers.
  
  
• The dirt-covered soldier who has his motorcycle stolen in front of the movie theater was played by director John Landis.
  
  
• When Hollis Wood's pocket contents are inventoried by the Japanese we hear Hollis (Slim Pickens) saying, "One genuine American rabbit's foot; one genuine American hara kiri knife." This is a parody of Pickens' inventory dialog as Maj. Kong in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
  
  
• Japanese Commander Mitamura's statement to German Captain Kleinschmidt about the latter's having "no prerogative to question my orders" is a parody of American General Ripper's statement to British Group Captain Mandrake in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
  
  
• The Polar Bear Club woman who was used to spoof Jaws (1975) at the beginning of this film is the same actress (Susan Backlinie) spoofing her own role from the earlier film.
  
  
• Some of the scenes made so much noise during filming, the crew could not hear director Steven Spielberg yell, "Cut." For those scenes, he had to fire a prop machine gun in the air to get the action to stop.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg shot one million feet of film over 247 shooting days.
  
  
• A deleted scene had Slim Pickens' character threatened with what looks like a torture device but turns out to be a coat hanger. Steven Spielberg hated losing the joke and swore he'd try to put it in every one of his future movies until it stayed there. Luckily, this happened in his very next film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
  
  
• Steven Spielberg has revealed that he almost made this film a musical.
  
  
• This was regarded as such a failure in the US that when the advance teaser trailer for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) was made, it listed all of Steven Spielberg's previous films except this one.
  
  
• In the Director's Cut scene where Wally (Bobby Di Cicco) and Dennis (Perry Lang) are dragged out of Malcomb's Diner and thrown out onto the street by Pops, a group of children dressed as The Little Rascals are standing in front of the restaurant.
  
  
• Major stars such has Charlton Heston and John Wayne turned down the role of Maj. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell. Wayne phoned director Steven Spielberg, who had given him the script, and not only turned it down due to ill health, but tried to get Spielberg to drop the project. Wayne felt it was unpatriotic and a slap in the face to WWII vets. Heston is thought to have turned it down for the same reasons. The role was taken by Robert Stack who, once in costume and make-up, actually bore a striking resemblance to the real General Stilwell.
  
  
• The extras cast as the Japanese crewmen on board the submarine were hired because they were Asian - none of them had any acting training at all, and most of them were typical laid-back Southern Californians. Toshirô Mifune was so outraged at their attitudes that he asked Steven Spielberg if he, rather than Spielberg, could deal with them. He then started yelling at them to get in line and even slapped one of them, saying, "This is how Japanese men are trained!" From that point on, the men were well disciplined by Mifune.
  
  
• Ned Beatty's character's name, Ward Douglas, is a combination of the names of two well-known sitcom fathers, Ward Cleaver of "Leave It to Beaver" (1957) and Steve Douglas from "My Three Sons" (1960).
  
  
• In 1941, Tim Matheson's character romances Nancy Allen's Donna Stratton. In Animal House (1978) the previous year, Matheson played the role of Eric (Otter) Stratton.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg has said that the march John Williams composed for 1941 (1979) is his favorite of all of the marches Williams has written.
  
  
• Feature film debut for Mickey Rourke.
  
  
• During the "attack" on Hollywood scene where Wild Bill Kelso is flying his plane through the streets of Los Angeles chasing and shooting at the trainer airplane, the soldiers move into action. In one scene you see two soldiers manning an anti-aircraft gun. The soldiers manning this gun, Willy and Joe, are none other than Michael McKean and David L. Lander, who played "Lenny" and "Squiggy" in "Laverne & Shirley" (1976).
  
  
• The opening scene is Steven Spielberg's spoof of his own opening of Jaws (1975). The "victim" in both is played by Susan Backlinie.
  
  
• Often regarded as 'Steven Spielberg (I)''s first flop, the film was in fact a moderate box-office success. However, when compared to his early hits Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), it performed under estimates.
  
  
• A scene was deleted from 1941 (1979) in which John Belushi's character met Dan Aykroyd's character right before he boarded the Japanese sub. They looked at each other as if recognizing one another, a nod to their real life friendship. It was the only scene in the film where they interacted.
  
  
• In 1941, John Belushi plays Wild Bill Kelso who is trying to find the Japanese because of their bombing of Pearl Harbor. Ironically, in his previous movie, Animal House (1978), he plays Bluto, a man who thinks the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
  
  
• The names of David Landers' and Michael McKean's characters, Willie and Joe, represent a nod to cartoonist and WWII veteran Bill Mauldin's creations for the Army newspaper, "Stars and Stripes". Mauldin's Willie and Joe represented average American GIs, their viewpoint, and their daily lives (outside of combat).
  
  

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