Arka Evren

FILM · 1966 · USA

The Professionals

29 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

15 Interesting Facts About The Professionals

  1. #004

    It was the first western to include nudity, even though it was a long shot and tame by later standards.

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  2. #005

    Lee Marvin took on the job of keeping the film's guns clean in unpredictable desert conditions.

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  3. #007

    According to producer Phil Parslow, the opening scene in which Lee Marvin demonstrates the machine gun was the only scene Marvin shot drunk during the entire film, despite many stories to the contrary.

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  4. #009

    The shoot was plagued by many complications, including rain, snow, sleet, scorching sun, intense desert heat and even flash floods.

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  5. #010

    The film showcased Woody Strode's talents and led to his work in future "Spaghetti" westerns.

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  6. #011

    Most of the film was shot in the desert outside Las Vegas, so the cast and crew stayed in Vegas hotels during production. Reportedly, some of their nighttime antics included dangling naked showgirls out of hotel room windows, firing prop shotguns and shooting arrows at Las Vegas landmarks. According to a famous story, one night Woody Strode and a stuntman (Woody later wrote that it was Lee Marvin) decided they were tired of the Pioneer Club's famous neon cowboy "Vegas Vic," who sat on a horse. So they got a prop bow and shot the old "Howdy Podner" out of the sky with a well-aimed steel-tipped arrow fired from a hotel window. They knew the police would come quickly, especially since they had caused trouble on the Strip on several previous nights. Marvin reportedly also fired a shotgun out of his hotel window. The police showed up immediately and their antics should have landed them in jail, but apparently Marvin's star status kept them out of serious trouble.

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  7. #013

    Ralph Bellamy noted that Richard Brooks did not need a megaphone or loudspeaker to make his voice heard, even on exterior shoots.

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  8. #020

    Richard Brooks produced, wrote and directed the film, taking responsibility for it under his contract with Columbia. After the $10 million spent on Lord Jim (1965), which had come out a year earlier and was a financial and critical failure for Brooks, Brooks was looking for a more modestly priced production at $6 million. The film was a big hit and led to something of a comeback for Brooks.

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  9. #022

    With Claudia Cardinale's death in 2025, no surviving main cast member remains.

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  10. #023

    Although Lee Marvin plays essentially the same character in The Professionals as he would in The Dirty Dozen (1967), Robert Ryan's character, Colonel Breed, is his exact opposite — hesitant and emotionally conflicted here.

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  11. #024

    Lee Marvin (Fordan) and Robert Ryan (Ehrengard) would appear together again in The Dirty Dozen (1967), a year after this film's release.

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  12. #025

    Two years later, Claudia Cardinale and Woody Strode were among the stars of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), though at that time they did not share a scene together.

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  13. #026

    It is the only film nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay that was not also nominated for Best Picture of the Year.

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  14. #027

    Remake plans were announced in 2000 but had not been pursued as of 2011. Among those attached were screenwriter Bruce Feirstein and director John Woo.

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  15. #028

    The film made its network television premiere on CBS's Thursday Night Movies on September 21, 1972.

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