Did You Know?

Producer Frank McCarthy was a retired brigadier general who served on the staff of Gen. George C. Marshall during World War II; he worked for 20 years to make a film about George S. Patton.

John Wayne eagerly sought the role of General George S. Patton but was turned down by the producer.

Nearly half the budget was spent on soldiers and equipment rented from the Spanish army.

Many of the quotes from the opening speech are real quotes from George S. Patton. However, not all of them were said at one time; rather, the speech is an assemblage of Patton moments.

This film was originally titled "Patton: Salute to a Rebel" and pre-release promotional material carried that title. The title was changed just prior to general release.

This was the second, and last, film to be produced in the Dimension 150 process.

According to his co-star Karl Malden, George C. Scott caused a shooting delay by immersing himself in a ping-pong tournament against a world-champion table-tennis player. Scott (who was in full costume and makeup) kept losing to the champ; yet he was determined to win at least one set, even if they had to stand there playing the entire night.

George C. Scott felt he hadn't really captured the full character of Patton. He would apologize to director Franklin J. Schaffner on the set for not fully realizing the complexity of the man.

Part of the film was filmed at a Over Peover in Cheshire. This was the actual location that Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton would meet (specifically at the pub, the Bells of Peover). The pub is still there, and flies both the Union Flag and the Stars and Stripes outside to commemorate its part in history.

The movie begins without showing the 20th Century Fox logo, or any other indication that the film is starting. At military bases across the U.S., theater owners reported that soldiers in the audience would often stand up and snap to attention when they heard the movie's opening line ("Ten-hut!"), assuming it to be a real call to attention.

The scene where George S. Patton tells General Truscott that he did serve with Napoléon Bonaparte is in reference to a poem which Patton wrote titled, "Through a Glass Darkly". In the poem, Patton talks about vague memories of six separate past lives, from caveman, to Ancient Roman, to Napoleonic Frenchman, and being a soldier in each and every life.

In reality, at the time he hit the wounded soldier, George S. Patton had been without sleep for nearly 48 hours and after hitting him, returned a couple of hours later and apologized.

The scene where General Lucien K. Truscott tells George S. Patton "You're an old athlete yourself General, you know matches are sometimes postponed" refers to the fact that Patton actually had represented the U.S.A. at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm by competing in the Modern Pentathlon. Patton finished a credible fifth in the competition. Remarkably it was the shooting element that let him down. In true Patton style he used his military .38 revolver instead of the lighter .22 favored by most of the athletes. Patton was also an expert fencer. He re-wrote the U.S. Army's manuals on swordsmanship removing the 'parry.' His idea was for all attack. Defence just wasted energy. Such was his mastery of swordsmanship that he designed the last saber ever to be worn into battle as a weapon, the M1913 Cavalry Saber, commonly known as the "Patton Saber".

George S. Patton's line about wanting to "lead a lot of men in a desperate battle" was actually written in a letter to his brother-in-law on the ship crossing the Atlantic on the way to North Africa.

The film features at least one person who worked on all 3 filmed versions of 12 Angry Men. Director Franklin J. Schaffner directed Studio One in Hollywood: Twelve Angry Men, Edward Binns played a juror in the iconic 12 Angry Men, and George C. Scott played a juror in 12 Angry Men.

Rod Steiger had first turned down the role, later admitting that was a big mistake.

Francis Ford Coppola says in the DVD commentary that he wrote a draft screenplay in 1966 and was fired from the film, in large part because Fox objected to opening the movie with Patton's speech. When the film finally went into production, Coppola's draft was dusted off and most of it used in the final film.

Patton's famous opening speech is subtly implied to take place after the main body of the film. At the time of his speech, he was a 4-star general, as evidenced by his helmet. When Patton first arrives in North Africa at the beginning of the film, he is just receiving his promotion to 3-star general, which he remains until the celebration of Germany's surrender. Both Patton's promotion to 4-star general and opening speech must have taken place between his relief of Bastogne and the celebration (the speech is motivational, and wouldn't be given after the war was already over).