Did You Know?
Sammy Davis Jr., required wooden blocks attached to the pedals on the garbage truck he drove in the film so that he could reach them.
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In a scene between Danny (Frank Sinatra) and Adele (Patrice Wymore), Adele throws a dish of candy at Danny. The throwing of the dish was ad-libbed, which accounts for the genuine look of surprise on Sinatra's face and the faces of his co-stars.
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Significant portions of the movie interactions between major characters were ad-libbed. The actors playing the leading roles all knew each other well and improvised dialogue as well as or better than the script.
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Most filming was accomplished early in the morning, before sunrise, since most of the actors also had shows in Las Vegas that they performed nightly during the shooting. The actors would wake up in the afternoon, do one or two shows in the evening, then go through make-up and arrive at the shooting locations for principal photography. Each shooting location was fully set up in advance so that minimal time would be wasted once the actors arrived.
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In the final shot of the film, the eleven walk past the famous sign in front of the Sands hotel. The five members of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford) are billed on the sign. They were performing alternately in the hotel's Copa Room during production, at the "Summit at the Sands".
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Actor Richard Boone supplied the voice of the minister giving the eulogy at the end of the film although he is not seen on screen.
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In the dubbed German version of the film, Frank Sinatra's character's name was changed to Frankie Ocean, probably in order to hook more viewers, who knew Sinatra only as a singer.
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Because of actor Akim Tamiroff's thick Russian accent, the sound editor often had to adjust segments of his dialog in order for him to be understood.
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One of the most difficult tasks facing the film's production team, was actually convincing Nevada's Clark County officials to let them use one of their garbage trucks.
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Longtime Sinatra bodyguard and fight trainer-to-the-stars, Al Silvani, makes an uncredited cameo as the manager of the Burlesque nightclub where Buddy Lester works.
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Dave White, Frank Sinatra's stand-in for over 30 years, can be glimpsed in an uncredited cameo as the stagehand who gives Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Buddy Lester temporary refuge from their pursuers right after the burlesque club brawl.
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Shirley MacLaine's tipsy uncredited cameo was ad-libbed by the actress, for which she reportedly received a brand new car from Warner Bros. as compensation. Her line, "I'm so drunk I don't think I could lie down without holding on," was a rehash of a classic Dean Martin line.
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KLAS TV reporting in the wake of the heist was a real Las Vegas media station. Not long after this movie was released, Vegas millionaire resident Howard Hughes bought it so he could control what movies aired on late night television.
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Right after the heist when Sheriff Wimmer is interrogating a possible witness over the phone, the uncredited voice on the other end of the line is that of George Fenneman, better known as the announcer on such TV game shows as You Bet Your Life and Tell It to Groucho.
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As Peter Lawford, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra attempt to disguise themselves by blackening their faces in the garbage truck near the end of the movie, Sammy Davis Jr. says, "I knew this color would come in handy some day." Martin and Sinatra teased Davis about that scene for as long as they knew each other thereafter.
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The ritzy Beverly Hills home of Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff) actually belonged to Hollywood agent Kurt Frings, husband of then screenwriter Ketti Frings.
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Shirley MacLaine shot her quick cameo during a break in filming The Apartment. Although she was offered a car for her work, she says she took the job as an excuse to hang out with her Rat Pack friends and see their Vegas show.
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Writer Jack Golden Russell was a gas station attendant in Vegas who handed the script to Sinatra while he was refilling his car.
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According to Frank Sinatra Jr. on the DVD Commentary, Sammy Davis Jr. was forced to stay at a "colored only" hotel during the filming because Las Vegas would not allow blacks to stay at the major hotels despite his appearing with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the others at the Sands Hotel. He was only allowed to stay at the major hotels, therefore breaking Vegas' unofficial color barrier after Frank Sinatra confronted the casino owners on his behalf.
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George Raft, who makes a cameo appearance as a casino owner, actually helped New York mobster Bugsy Siegel finance and promote the Flamingo Hotel.
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The casinos hit in the heist are: Hotel Flamingo, the Sands, Desert Inn, the Riviera and the Sahara.
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Possibly due to a journalistic mishearing, a 'Hollywood Reporter' piece in August 1958 gave the title of the upcoming film as "Oceans of Loving".
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The "Ocean's Eleven" group appear on camera together in only a single shot. It is at the very end of the movie as they are walking on the sidewalk in front of the Sands.
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The entire Ocean's Eleven does not all appear at the end as previously stated, since they were leaving Tony Bergdorf's (Richard Conte) funeral who was one of the eleven. There are however at least two scenes with all of the group together, at Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff) house and at the Bowling Alley.
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When Sinatra, Lawford and Buddy Lester are in the Burlesque nightclub where Buddy Lester works and Buddy's wife starts her strip act, the music she dances to is The Tender Trap - the theme song from Sinatra's 1955 movie of the same name.
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