FILM · 1973 · UK
The Day of the Jackal
74 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (74)
- #001
The custom lightweight rifle that the Jackal hides in his crutch was a real, working model. Two of them were built for the film; one was handed over to the British authorities, and the other is held at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.
- #002
The Liberation Day scenes were shot at a real parade, and most of the spectators had no idea a film was being made. This caused some confusion: much of the crowd took the on-screen arrests to be real and tried to help.
- #003
In an interview, Frederick Forsyth said he had been aware in the 1960s of people who stole and used the identities of the dead (as the Jackal does), but that no one in the British government noticed until this film was released. Several years later, it emerged that British MP John Stonehouse, after faking his own death, obtained what newspapers called a "Jackal passport" to evade retribution.
- #004
Director Fred Zinnemann wanted the Jackal to be played by someone anonymous and unremarkable, so he cast the little-known Edward Fox. He later admitted this may have contributed to the film's failure at the box office.
- #005
After the first five minutes, this film has no score other than the diegetic background music of bands, street musicians and radios. Director Fred Zinnemann deliberately refused to use a score on the grounds that it distracted from the movement and the tension being built.
- #006
When the Jackal presses a key, he first rubs it against the area between his lower lip and chin, one of the oiliest parts of his skin. This is because making a key impression requires the clay or the key to be lubricated, otherwise the clay risks sticking to the metal and ruining the impression. The skin's natural oils provide that lubrication.
- #007
Possibly to avoid confusion with the names of living French people, the fictional names Frederick Forsyth used in the novel were replaced with the names of famous French historical figures: for example, Colbert (Louis XIV's Minister of the Navy), Dumont (the famous explorer) and Berthier (Napoleon Bonaparte's private secretary).
- #008
Thanks to producer Julien Derode's skilful handling of the authorities, director Fred Zinnemann was granted almost unprecedented access to many locations and events normally not made available to filmmakers.
- #009
During the shooting of the final scene, in which President Charles de Gaulle awards medals to veterans, many extras were unaware how closely the actor Adrien Cayla-Legrand resembled the real de Gaulle, who had died in 1972. On the first take, when the President stepped out of his limousine, much of the crowd gasped, and an elderly extra playing one of the veteran soldiers fainted from the shock.
- #010
Although this film was not a success at the box office, it generally received excellent reviews and made Edward Fox much in demand in film and television.
- #011
The French government supported the making of this film, provided soldiers and allowed the use of extensive locations for the shoot throughout the film, and especially in the Liberation Day scenes.
- #012
The remake starring Richard Gere and Bruce Willis did not receive the approval of Frederick Forsyth and Fred Zinnemann, who strove to keep the new film from carrying the same title.
- #013
The fee the Jackal wanted for completing the job was $500,000. In 2024 that would be worth slightly more than $5 million.
- #014
When Frederick Forsyth finished his novel in 1970, French President Charles de Gaulle was still alive, but he died in 1971, shortly before its publication.
- #015
The first scene shot was the Jackal's meeting with the OAS members. Filming took three days because Edward Fox struggled to get into character. Director Fred Zinnemann eventually realized he was focusing too much on the scene. He and Fox took a long car ride, and Zinnemann reassured Fox that his difficulty with the scene would not harm his career, since he had been nominated for a BAFTA. They returned to the set and shot the scene effortlessly.
- #016
When the Jackal meets the arms supplier in Genoa, a picture of John F. Kennedy appears on the cover of an Italian magazine reporting President Kennedy's last visit to Europe. The scene is set on 2 August 1963, three months before Kennedy was assassinated.
- #017
The arms supplier Gozzi wears a black armband in his scenes with the Jackal. This may be to honor Pope John XXIII, who died on 3 June 1963.
- #018
One of the Jackal's targets was a man named Trujillo. This is probably Rafael Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic. He was regarded as a tyrant and dictator and was assassinated in 1961.
- #019
The product called an "explosive bullet" contains no explosive substance. It is drilled through the middle, a drop of mercury is poured inside, and the tip of the bullet is sealed. When the bullet hits an object, the mercury keeps its momentum, travels through the drilled channel and strikes the tip of the bullet from the inside. This causes the bullet to fragment.
- #020
Disguised as an amputee war veteran, the Jackal tied his leg back behind him to appear one-legged. Edward Fox could only hold this position for five minutes.
- #021
Fred Zinnemann came to the project while visiting his producer friend John Woolf, who had a copy of Frederick Forsyth's then-unpublished draft on his desk. Zinnemann asked about it, and Woolf told him he had to read the book and wouldn't be able to put it down. Zinnemann took the book home and read it overnight. The next day he called Woolf and told him he wanted to make it.
- #022
The technical specifications and folding diagram for building the actual assassin's rifle appear in the Franklin Mint special hardcover edition of the novel.
- #023
The production was granted unprecedented access to the traditional 14 July parade in Paris. Unfortunately it rained continuously during it, but the bad weather is not very noticeable on camera.
- #024
During filming, author Frederick Forsyth introduced Edward Fox to a real-life contract killer he had known while working as a war correspondent in Africa in the 1960s.
- #025
Half a century after this film's premiere, Frederick Forsyth collaborated on writing a similarly themed TV series to be released in 2024.
- #026
A scene was shot in which the Jackal shoots the Gunsmith with his custom-made weapon (immediately after the Jackal asks the Gunsmith for an explosive bullet). The scene was cut so that the Jackal could transition smoothly into the rifle test in the forest and also to create a more interesting dynamic with the earlier scenes of the Forger (who tried to blackmail him and had his neck broken for it).
- #027
When the Jackal looks at the hotel register to find out which room Madame de Montpellier is staying in, the names of the French production crew are visible: assistant director Louis Pitzele, head of department René Strasser and set designer Willy Holt.
- #028
Although it is regarded as a very close adaptation of the book, the film makes many significant changes. Instead of luring him back to France with a false report that his daughter has died, the French security service abducts the OSS bodyguard while he is delivering mail; the Jackal goes to Genoa, Italy, for the sniper rifle and false identity card rather than to Belgium as in the novel; the novel's baroness is now simply a wealthy woman, played by Delphine Seyrig; while going into hiding with her, the Jackal has a car accident that nearly ruins his plans. The woman does in fact interview the police in the film but tells them nothing. The Jackal kills her (during sex) after he explains that he realized the police had spoken to her and that the car he used was stolen. The French colonel who unwittingly tips off the Jackal commits suicide instead of resigning. The false Danish identity the Jackal uses belongs to a priest in the book rather than a teacher as in the film. In the film, when the Jackal arrives in Paris, he goes to a Turkish bath establishment as a Danish schoolteacher and is secretly received by a homosexual client, whom he later kills in the apartment of the man he is hiding with. (It is unclear whether he has sex with the man before killing him, where the novel insists he does not.) In the novel the Jackal switches his identity once more to that of an American student and goes to a gay bar instead of a bathhouse, where he makes a very flamboyant impression before being caught — something the police would also discover. One change the film does not make, however, is telling us how the Jackal planned to escape after carrying out the assassination; that remains a secret.
- #029
The Paris train station Gare Montparnasse was demolished in 1969 and moved elsewhere. The original had to be recreated at the Studios de Boulogne in Paris.
- #030
According to Sir Roger Moore, producer John Woolf wanted him to play the Jackal, but director Fred Zinnemann rejected Moore because he was too famous an actor. Moore would later face Michael Lonsdale in Moonraker (1979).
- #031
The visual effect of the Jackal's single shot at President De Gaulle (as seen through the sniper scope) was done optically.
- #032
Fred Zinnemann cast French-British character actor Michael Lonsdale as the detective tracking the Jackal after working with him on Behold a Pale Horse (1964).
- #033
Jean Martin plays Wolenski, one of the former French military veterans who felt betrayed by Charles de Gaulle's perceived surrender to the FLN's violent tactics in support of the independence uprising in Algeria. In The Battle of Algiers (1966), Martin played Colonel Mathieu, the French paratrooper colonel who arrives in Algiers to take control of the French military operation aimed at seizing control of the city and the violent uprising for independence.
- #034
The opening narration was delivered by Barrie Ingham, who also plays Colonel St. Clair in the film.
- #035
This was Fred Zinnemann's first film in seven years. Zinnemann, a two-time Oscar winner for Best Director, had seen his project "Man's Fate" cancelled just one week before shooting was to begin after three years in pre-production. His next production, an adaptation of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "First Circle", was also cancelled at an early stage.
- #036
The scene in which the Jackal tests his new weapon on a melon in a grassy clearing was recreated for episode 5 of the 2024 television series starring Eddie Redmayne in the same role, including whip zooms and screwdriver adjustments to the sight. Even the costumes worn are almost identical. The only thing missing is the cigarette the Jackal smokes in the original.
- #037
The only instance in his film career was Tony Britton (Inspector Thomas) using his own original Birmingham/'Brummie' accent for his character.
- #038
The police officer whom the Jackal arms is played by Philippe Léotard, who died in 2001 on Liberation Day (25 August), the day on which the Jackal's attempt takes place.
- #039
The film opens with a recreation of a real assassination attempt on President Charles de Gaulle in August 1962. The fictional part of the story then follows: the O.A.S. hires a professional assassin to eliminate the President of France. Fifteen months after the real attempt on de Gaulle, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Some researchers believe that, just like their fictional counterparts, three professional French assassins with no criminal record in a foreign country were tasked with killing Kennedy.
- #040
Body count: ten. However, one of them is unconfirmed: that of the car driver involved in the collision with the Jackal's car.
- #041
The protagonist, Inspector Claude Lebel (Michael Lonsdale), does not appear until fifty minutes into the film.
- #042
Denise is an O.A.S. agent, and the discovery of this agent causes the Élysée Palace official Colonel St. Clair to commit suicide. On 19 June 1997, Olga Georges-Picot killed herself by jumping from a building in Paris.
- #043
The Place de l'Etoile, where Duggan stands under the arch, was later renamed Place Charles de Gaulle.
- #044
Robert Redford, Sir Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson and Sir Roger Moore were considered for the role of the Jackal.
- #045
After his death, it was listed as one of Akira Kurosawa's 100 favourite films.
- #046
Michael Caine was reportedly keen on the role of the Jackal, but director Fred Zinnemann felt that a major star would reduce the tension and cast Edward Fox after seeing him in The Go-Between (1971).
- #047
Commissioner Lebel shows the ministers the photograph of "Charles Calthrop", the man believed to be the Jackal, supplied by the British. If you freeze the frame, the photograph is actually of Edward Fox (the Jackal). Elsewhere in the film, Charles Calthrop is played by a different actor, Edward Hardwicke (uncredited). In the script, however, it is plausible that this is another "fake" identity of the real Jackal and that Hardwicke plays the real Calthrop. The first three letters of his first and last names spell Chacal, French for Jackal.
- #048
Edward Fox's daughter, Emilia Fox, recreates the scene in which the Jackal tests his weapon using a melon in the woods in the series Signora Volpe (2022).
- #049
Peter Finch, one of Fred Zinnemann's favourite actors, was named in a British trade newspaper report in late 1971 as a possible lead for the film. By the time shooting began a few months later, the role belonged to Edward Fox.
- #050
The Day of the Jackal contains one of the earliest depictions of identity theft. By the 21st century identity theft would become largely computer-based, which would make tracking the Jackal somewhat easier, whereas in the early 1960s when the film is set most records were filed on paper, giving the Jackal more time with each false identity.
- #051
When the British find the forged passport request, it is noted that it was submitted on 14 July. That is Bastille Day, a French national holiday commemorating the storming of the Bastille, which began the French Revolution and brought an end to the monarchy in France.
- #052
The Ordre de la Libération medal (a rectangular design with a black and green striped ribbon) is a highly prestigious award, granted to only 1,061 recipients. Some were given to the people of occupied cities, while others went to various French armed forces units. Among the individual awards, one went to Winston Churchill and another to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- #053
The helicopter Lebel uses to visit Mme de Montpellier is registered JAQ (similar to "Jackal").
- #054
A travel agency in Paris advertises a holiday to New York and Boston for 1,100 francs, equivalent to about 200 US dollars in 1963, when the film is set. In 2025 a return flight can be bought for only 300 euros, that is, less than 400 dollars.
- #055
According to Lundquist, the Dane whose passport the Jackal steals is seen getting off the plane with an SAS - Scandinavian Airlines Systems - shoulder bag. SAS is the national airline of Denmark (along with Sweden and Norway). Shortly afterwards the Jackal is seen with a similar one, and when disguised as Lundquist he is seen carrying that SAS bag.
- #056
John Frankenheimer wanted to direct this film and later used screenwriter Kenneth Ross on the political thriller Black Sunday (1977).
- #057
Derek Jacobi took the role of Klaus Wenzer in The Odessa File (1974), another adaptation of a Frederick Forsyth novel.
- #058
Sir Michael Caine, who was considered for the role of the Jackal, appeared in The Fourth Protocol (1987), another adaptation of a Frederick Forsyth novel.
- #059
The Jackal travels by train from Tulle to Paris. This involves changing trains at Brive-la-Gaillarde, a little under half an hour from Tulle. He leaves Tulle at 12:10 and arrives at the Gare d'Austerlitz at 19:10, taking exactly seven hours. Today the journey can be completed in six hours, departing Tulle at 12:19. Even with a wait of one hour and 12 minutes between trains at Brive-la-Gaillarde, arrival at the Gare d'Austerlitz would be at 18:21. The change of trains explains why the locomotive heading to Austerlitz is completely different from the one heading the train at Tulle.
- #060
The three main female characters in the film (Denise, Colette and Madame Lebel) are red-haired.
- #061
Both lead actors would appear in James Bond films, but in this film they are on opposite sides of the law. Michael Lonsdale played the villain Hugo Drax in Moonraker (1979), while Edward Fox played M in the non-canonical Never Say Never Again (1983).
- #062
Michael Lonsdale and Delphine Seyrig share only one scene, in which Lebel interrogates her at her home. The pair played a married couple in India Song (1975).
- #063
Both lead actresses died in their 50s; Olga Georges-Picot at 57 and Delphine Seyrig at 58.
- #064
Key differences between the two versions of The Jackal: 1. Fidelity to the book: The Day of the Jackal (1973) follows Frederick Forsyth's novel closely. It focuses on the OAS (a French paramilitary group) hiring an assassin to kill President Charles de Gaulle. It is highly realistic and historically grounded. The Jackal (1997) is loosely inspired by the premise but is not faithful to the book. The story was updated to address Cold War international politics. The target is connected to the US government, not to De Gaulle. 2. Tone and style: 1973: a political thriller with a slow, meticulous pace. A realistic, almost documentary-like approach. It creates tension through precision rather than spectacle. 1997: a Hollywood action thriller full of confrontations, chases and explosions. Flashier, designed for mainstream entertainment. It emphasizes spectacle over realism. 3. The Jackal character: Edward Fox (1973): portrayed as a cold, methodical, elegant and professional killer. Highly restrained, faithful to the novel's depiction. Bruce Willis (1997): an international assassin who constantly changes disguises and uses high technology. A more theatrical, larger-than-life portrayal. Less realistic and more of a charismatic villain. 4. Adversaries: 1973: a low-profile but highly effective French detective, Michael Lonsdale. The conflict is intellectual and investigative. 1997: FBI deputy director Sidney Poitier and former IRA agent Richard Gere join forces against the Jackal. The conflict is more personal and action-driven. 5. Historical context: 1973: set in the real political climate of post-colonial France after the Algerian War. Strong historical authenticity. 1997: set in a modernized context of international terrorism and organized crime. No direct link to specific real historical events.
- #065
Screenwriter Kenneth Ross also wrote The Odessa File (1974), another adaptation of a Frederick Forsyth novel.
- #066
André Penvern (the policeman at Tulle station) played a French police officer in The Dogs of War (1980), another adaptation of a Frederick Forsyth novel.
- #067
Edward Fox and Edward Hardwicke appeared together in the Poirot (1989) TV episode The Hollow (2004).
- #068
A decade earlier, Edward Fox and Anton Rodgers (Bernard) appeared together in the same scene (though uncredited) in Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life (1963).
- #069
Edward Fox and Alan Badel both appeared in Force 10 from Navarone (1978).
- #070
At around the 24th minute, as the Jackal and the gunsmith discuss the assassination, a magazine with a portrait of John F. Kennedy lies on the table in front of them. The film is set in the summer of 1963, and Kennedy is expected to fall victim to assassination that same year — a fate he is notorious for.
- #071
At roughly 2 hours and 12 minutes, the Jackal's forged documents for the French veteran "André Martin" list the address "154 rue de Rennes." This is a real address in Paris and the location where the film's final confrontation was shot.
- #072
The opening narration, the voice on the radio news bulletin and the TV announcer heard in Jules Bernard's apartment are all voiced by Barrie Ingram, who plays the Élysée Palace official ultimately revealed to have leaked the secret information from the Cabinet conference room.
- #073
In a television broadcast of this film years ago, the Jackal was shown shooting and killing the gunsmith in that room with one of the bullets he had bought.
- #074
On the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, the film enjoys unanimous approval from both critics (91% from 35 reviews) and users (88% from more than 5,000 votes). Compared with the average for Fred Zinnemann's 19 feature films, opinions of this film align with the general critics' view (84.1%) and it is on average better liked by all users (70.1%).
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work