FILM · 1970 · USA
Catch-22
57 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (57)
- #001
Second unit director John Jordan refused to wear a safety belt during a bombing scene. While signaling to another aircraft from the tail gunner's position on the camera plane, he lost his balance and fell 4,000 feet to his death.
- #002
Director Mike Nichols wanted thirty-six B-25s to form the large US Army Air Forces base, but the budget could only cover seventeen flyable Mitchells. An additional non-flying fuselage was purchased in Mexico, made barely ferryable, and flown to the location with its landing gear, but it was burned and destroyed in a landing accident on site. The wreckage was later buried in the ground beside the runway and remains there to this day.
- #003
The entire production crew wore military uniforms during filming, so that if they accidentally appeared in a shot they would not disrupt it.
- #004
Orson Welles tried to acquire the rights to the novel so he could film it. He had to settle for playing the role of General Dreedle.
- #005
George C. Scott turned down the role of Colonel Cathcart, saying he had effectively played the same part in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
- #006
Eighteen B-25s were gathered and reassembled and made airworthy again at an average cost of $10,000 each. Since many of them are now in museums, the film is credited with helping preserve this Second World War legend.
- #007
The film contains one of the longest, most complex uninterrupted scenes ever made: two actors talk in the background while sixteen of seventeen aircraft, in four groups of four, take off simultaneously. As the scene progresses the actors enter a building and the same aircraft are seen climbing into formation through the window. The problem was that for every take the production manager had to recall the aircraft and have them take off again for each shot. This was done four times.
- #008
Paula Prentiss appearing fully nude from the front was one of the first instances of a major actress revealing everything in a major Hollywood production.
- #009
Although it differs greatly from the novel in tone, plot and structure, the film received the approval of author Joseph Heller. He even preferred some of the new additions.
- #010
The popular scene in which Hungry Joe (Seth Allen) is cut in two by an aircraft and falls into the water was shot in two steps. (1) An aircraft collides with a dummy rigged to spray blood. After a cut, the second shot shows an actor or stuntman standing against the sky, holding an angled mirror in front of him that reflects more sky to match what is behind him, so that the upper part of his body disappears. He then falls backward into the water, allowing the trick to be visible to the camera. Albert Whitlock did the post-production work and rotoscoped additional water and horizon around the legs and waist to hide the mirror and the upper body when it was exposed (look for the slightly differently colored patch of water that appears and disappears as the legs enter). In the commentary Mike Nichols remembered the part about the use of the mirror but was unaware of, or had forgotten, the post-production stage of the scene.
- #011
The squadron patch on Yossarian's (Alan Arkin) leather A-2 flight jacket — a naked woman riding a falling bomb and hurling lightning — was the patch of Joseph Heller's 488th Bombardment Squadron (Medium), one of the four B-25 squadrons of the 340th Bombardment Group (Medium) during the Second World War (the others being the 486th, 487th and 489th).
- #012
Stacy Keach was originally cast as Colonel Cathcart when filming began, but things did not work out and Charles Grodin (who had already taken on the role of Captain Aarfy Aardvark) was asked to take over. Since the role was written for an older man, old-age makeup was tried for several days until it was decided to cast Martin Balsam instead, and Grodin returned to his original role.
- #013
Austin Pendleton worked on the film for two weeks, given that all his scenes were entirely with Orson Welles. Pendleton claimed that Welles made an already difficult film even harder to work on, because Welles had previously tried to acquire the film rights to the book and tried to redirect his scenes through director Mike Nichols the way Welles wanted them.
- #014
Often regarded as a major flop, the film was in fact the 8th highest-grossing film at the US box office in 1970.
- #015
The island of Pianosa actually lies in the Mediterranean eight miles south of Elba, but it is very small and could not possibly support the military installation depicted. This was noted by Joseph Heller in the preface to the novel.
- #016
Director Mike Nichols asked Bob Balaban to read for the role of Milo Minderbinder, which ultimately went to Jon Voight. After hearing him, however, he changed his mind and thought Balaban was perfect for Captain Orr.
- #017
Adapting Joseph Heller's novel into a screenplay took Mike Nichols and Buck Henry 2 years.
- #018
Yossarian refuses to bomb Ferrara because it has no strategic value. On 23 August 1944 the Allies bombed Ferrara because of the synthetic rubber plant in the town. However, there was no reason for any character in the story to know about the plant.
- #019
It was not considered a success on release. Despite Paramount's large investment, it was surpassed at the box office by M*A*S*H (1970) and Patton (1970). Its reputation, however, has risen considerably since then.
- #020
Paul Simon was initially set to appear in the film, but his role was written out.
- #021
The actor playing the wounded airman had to share his costume with several pounds of offal made to look like intestines exposed by his injury.
- #022
The film has no original musical score.
- #023
Columbia initially bought the film rights for $150,000 with the intention of starring Jack Lemmon. At various points both Richard Brooks and Richard Quine were involved, but Joseph Heller was reportedly unhappy because he felt these choices were not satirical enough.
- #024
Paula Prentiss had suffered a nervous breakdown five years earlier on the set of What's New Pussycat (1965). It nearly derailed her career, and although she appeared on TV shows, she had not been in another film until this one.
- #025
After the first week of shooting, Mike Nichols sent 200 of the extras home because he wanted the Pianosa air base to look more desolate.
- #026
In the book, Yossarian suffers a groin injury and, before passing out from the pain, cannot tell whether his genitals were lost to shrapnel. In the film, Yossarian is hospitalized after a similar wound to his upper thigh; although the dialogue does not refer to his possible castration, there is a visual joke on his bedside table — two oranges, peeled, placed next to an open can of cocktail nuts, with only half the word "cocktail" in frame.
- #027
Paramount allotted the film a budget of $17 million and a six-week schedule for the flying scenes. These instead required six months of shooting, totaling 1,500 hours. Only 10 minutes of that footage appears in the final film.
- #028
Jack Lemmon told Orson Welles, while both were guests on The Dick Cavett Show (1968) (Orson Welles/Jack Lemmon (1970)), that the crowd cheered when Welles's name appeared on the monitor. This was the counterculture era, when Citizen Kane (1941) was increasingly embraced by a new generation of young viewers.
- #029
Bob Newhart started a joking rumor that Bob Balaban had died.
- #030
This reunites Martin Balsam and Anthony Perkins, ten years after they appeared together in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).
- #031
Stacy Keach was fired by Mike Nichols and replaced as Colonel Cathcart by Martin Balsam. Coincidentally, Balsam also replaced him in another Joseph Heller work, We Bombed in New Haven, which began as a dramatization of "Catch-22." Keach originated the role of Captain Starkey in the play at the Yale Repertory Theatre, and when it moved to Broadway, Jason Robards took over his part.
- #032
Because filming in a remote part of Mexico was problematic in terms of access, $180,000 was spent on a new highway and $250,000 on a new runway.
- #033
Stanley Kubrick was considered to direct this film.
- #034
The pop duo Simon & Garfunkel (Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel) were initially set to appear in the film. Simon's role was cut, but the film became Garfunkel's first feature film acting role.
- #035
Yossarian's B-25 "Dumbo" was an older-model B-25 with the top turret positioned toward the rear of the fuselage and an additional tail gun position. Most of the B-25s in the film were newer models, with the top turret just behind the cockpit and tail guns and waist gunner positions.
- #036
The film's cast includes four Oscar® winners: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Jon Voight and Orson Welles; and four Oscar® nominees: Buck Henry, Anthony Perkins, Jack Gilford and Bob Balaban.
- #037
Yossarian's plane in the film was an older-model B-25D-2 nicknamed "Dumbo."
- #038
After his breakthrough success in The Graduate (1967) and the subsequent major success of Midnight Cowboy (1969), Dustin Hoffman hoped to reunite with director Mike Nichols for this film, based on one of his favorite books. On learning that his friend Alan Arkin (who had recommended him to Nichols for "The Graduate") had been cast as the protagonist Yossarian, Hoffman set his sights on the role of Milo Minderbinder, and was quite shocked when Nichols countered by offering him the much smaller role of Lieutenant Orr; suspecting that Nichols did this deliberately to humiliate him, he turned the role down. The role of Milo ultimately went to Jon Voight, Hoffman's "Midnight Cowboy" co-star.
- #039
Three actors who were regulars on The Bob Newhart Show (1972) appear in this film: Bob Newhart, Peter Bonerz and Jack Riley.
- #040
When Mike Nichols took over as director, he planned to add Henry Fonda and Robert Redford to the star-studded cast.
- #041
The event that opens the book, with Yossarian in the hospital, occurs twenty-five minutes into the film.
- #042
Mike Nichols initially wanted Walter Matthau, Stacy Keach and Al Pacino in the cast.
- #043
When Richard Lester was asked to direct, he had just finished A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) on Samuel Bronston's ruined property in Spain. He considered using its star, Zero Mostel, as Milo.
- #044
This was Bruce Kirby's first film.
- #045
Orson Welles and Anthony Perkins appeared in The Trial (1962), which Welles directed.
- #046
In this film, Jack Gilford (Doc Daneeka) persuaded Alan Arkin (Captain Yossarian) to pose as the dying son of a family that had come from the United States to say goodbye before he died. In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Zero Mostel persuaded Gilford, who played the slave "Hysterium", to pose as the corpse of the bride "Philia" for "Captain Milos Gloriosus" so that he could say goodbye to his "bride".
- #047
It was among the 500 films on the American Film Institute's 2000 list of nominees for the 100 Funniest American Films.
- #048
Columbia Pictures first announced it in 1964, with Richard Brooks as director.
- #049
Martin Balsam, who played Colonel Cathcart, is the father of the actress Talia Balsam. From 1989 to 1993 Talia Balsam was married to George Clooney; in 2019 Clooney starred in, produced and co-directed a remake as a miniseries: Catch-22 (2019).
- #050
At about the 24th minute, while Yossarian sleeps in his hospital bed, a box of Planter's Cocktail Peanuts sits in the upper right corner of the screen, with two small oranges beside it. Note that only the first four letters of the word cocktail are visible.
- #051
Jon Voight and Bob Balaban appeared in Midnight Cowboy (1969).
- #052
There is a frequently asked question about the song that plays while Yossarian dances with Luciana: Kurt Weill's September Song. The original version comes from the Broadway musical Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), and the first recorded version was made the same year.
- #053
Alan Arkin and Charles Grodin later appeared in So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), but they never shared a scene together.
- #054
Colonel Cathcart eats Cracker Jack in a Jeep filled with cases of Cracker Jack. Jack Gilford, who played Doctor Daneeka, had previously appeared in Cracker Jack commercials.
- #055
Richard Benjamin and Anthony Perkins appeared in Neil Simon's play THE STAR-SPANGLED GIRL in 1966. Perkins later co-wrote The Last of Sheila (1973), a mystery and Hollywood satire, with Stephen Sondheim. In the film, Benjamin plays a character loosely based on Perkins.
- #056
Alan Arkin (YOSSARIAN) directed Jon Korkes (SNOWDEN) in the 1969 Off-Broadway revival of Jules Feiffer's play LITTLE MURDERS and in its film adaptation (Little Murders (1971)). Elizabeth Wilson (MOTHER) appeared in both versions of the Feiffer work.
- #057
After YOSSARIAN (Alan Arkin) is rejected on the beach by NURSE DUCKETT (Paula Prentiss), the scene cuts to a briefing led by BINE DANBY (Richard Benjamin). Prentiss and Benjamin married in 1961 and appeared together in He & She (1967).
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