1941/Trivia

• Hey, It's That Guy! / Hilarious in Hindsight 1941 features both Blues Brothers and John Candy plus John Landis in a minor role -- one year before The Blues Brothers. There is even at least one promotional picture of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi on that military motorcycle.
• Old Shame: Spielberg readily acknowledges he screwed up big time. It was such a massive failure that in trailers for Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was the only Spielberg movie not mentioned.
• What Could Have Been
  • The original Zemeckis-Gale script was a Black Comedy entitled The Night the Japs Attacked.
  • A scene of Slim Pickens being threatened with what looks like a torture device but turns out to be a coat hanger was cut, but Spielberg liked the joke so much he swore that he'd try to put it in every one of his future movies until it stayed. He got his wish in his very next film, but just imagine if he hadn't and had held his promise during some of his later work...
  • Supposedly, at one point, Spielberg debated making the movie as a musical.
  • Spielberg initially approached John Wayne to play Stilwell, but he refused in disgust at the film's "anti-American" tone.
  • The ferris wheel subplot started as a vehicle for Jackie Gleason and Art Carney to essentially reprise their roles from The Honeymooners, to the point that the original script says the characters resemble a bus driver and a sewer worker. Gleason torpedoed the plan by mysteriously refusing to work with Carney again.