The Longest Day

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A massive all-star cast including such greats as John Wayne, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan and a youthful Sean Connery enact the astonishing events surrounding the Allies nail-biting Normandy invasion and are just part of the equation which makes The Longest Day one of the all-time cinema greats. Now you can own this classic war movie as a Special Edition 2-Disc DVD 31st May 2004 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

It is an in-depth look at the massive preparations, mistakes and random events that determined the outcome of the most important battle of all time. Winner of 2 Oscars®, The Longest Day ranks as one of Hollywood's truly great war films. This 60th Anniversary 2-disc special includes a 12-page commemorative booklet plus two fascinating documentaries.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is releasing a definitive two-disc special edition to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day. In addition to the three-hour movie there are also two documentaries focusing on the making of the movie and D-Day itself. Fox's press ad campaign will be timed around both the D-Day anniversary on June 6 and also Father's Day on June 20th.

There will be dozens of programmes broadcast around the anniversary, including "Destination D-Day: Raw Recruits" – a programme featuring 19 young men put through the preparations and exercises that their grandfathers might have experienced 60 years ago.

There will also be a flagship BBC drama broadcast titled "D-Day". All this activity will ensure that D-Day is at the fore-front of everyone's minds in late May, early June. Over the 40-plus years since it was made the movie has lost none of its stature and has built an army of fans Trivia the movie has spawned over the decades has become an art form in itself. Here's how to be a D-Day expert:

Sean Connery, who made his debut as James Bond also in 1962, acted in the movie along with Gert Fröbe and Curt Jürgens - two future Bond villains.

Henry Grace was not an actor when he was cast as Dwight D. Eisenhower, but his remarkable resemblance to Eisenhower got him the role. The former US President was considered for the role of himself in the film, and he indicated his willingness. However, it was decided that makeup artists couldn't make him appear young enough to play his WWII self.

Richard Todd (Major Howard of the British 6th Airborne) was himself in Normandy on D-Day, and participated as Lt. Todd of the British 6th Airborne in the glider assault on the Orne River Bridge.

As a 22-year-old private, Joseph Lowe landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day with the Fifth Ranger Battalion and scaled the cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc. He scaled those hundred-foot cliffs all over again, for the cameras, some 17 years later.

The piper who played the bagpipes as Lord Lovat's commandos stormed ashore is played by the actual man who did this stirring deed on D-Day. His name is Bill Millin. He recently donated that very set of pipes to the national war memorial in Edingurgh Castle.

The theme song to the movie, by Paul Anka, was used as the Regimental march of the Canadian Airborne Regiment (1968-1995)

While clearing a section of the Normandy beach near Ponte du Hoc, the film's crew unearthed a British tank that had been buried in the sand since the original invasion. Mechanics cleaned it off, fixed it up and it was used in the film as part of the British tank regiment. An estimated 23,000 troops were supplied by the U.S., England and France for the filming. (Germans only appeared as officers in speaking roles.) The French contributed 1,000 commandos despite their involvement in the Algerian War at the time.

The Spitfire planes used in the film needed to be fitted with new Rolls-Royce engines before being usable. No gliders of the sort used in the invasion were available, so Darryl Zanuck commissioned new duplicates from the same company that built the originals. During the filming of the landings at Omaha Beach, the American soldiers appearing as extras didn't want to jump off the landing craft into the water because they thought it would be too cold. Robert Mitchum, who played General Norm Cota, finally got disgusted with them and jumped in first, at which point the soldiers had no choice but to follow his example.

In Italy for the filming of Cleopatra, Roddy McDowall became so frustrated with the numerous delays during its production, he begged Darryl F. Zanuck for a part in The Longest Day just so he could do some work. He ended up with a small role as an American soldier.