This records the names of 11 Indian army men buried in Muslim cemeteries throughout Thailand whose graves could not be maintained. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 World War II POW film directed by David Lean, about the construction of the bridges over the River Kwai, although it's heavily fictionalised.It's based on the French novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle, of Planet of the Apes fame; Boulle, who could neither read nor write English, was also credited for the screenplay adaptation due to . [10], Although Lean later denied it, Charles Laughton was his first choice for the role of Nicholson. He succumbed to malaria, dysentery, and malnutrition at Camp Kilo 101 in Thailand. English / Japanese / Thai. Geoffrey Horne saved his life. [41] According to Variety, the film earned estimated domestic box office revenues of $18,000,000[42] although this was revised downwards the following year to $15,000,000, which was still the biggest for 1958 and Columbia's highest-grossing film at the time. Realising he has no choice, Shears volunteers. The bridge is still in everyday use as part of the Bangkok-Nam Tok line. 16. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Two bridges were built, the first made of wood. We worked at bayonet point and under bamboo lash, taking any risk to sabotage the operation whenever the opportunity arose. Cutting the base board 1190 x 160 x 12 mm. rainy day Therefore, there are not many people. In 1984 the Academy Board of Governors voted posthumous Oscars to Foreman and Wilson, and their names were included on prints of the film beginning in the 1990s. For the novel, see, American theatrical release poster, "Style A", A transcript of the interview and the documentary as a whole can be found in the new edition of John Coast's book, Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, 11th greatest British film of the 20th century, the highest-grossing film of 1957 in the United States and Canada, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, Best Sound Track Album, Dramatic Picture Score or Original Cast, AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "New to the National Film Registry (December 1997) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin", "Columbia Earns as It Holds Coin Due Bill Holden on 10% of 'Kwai', "Flashback: A look back at this day in film history (, "Sri Lanka to rebuild bridge from River Kwai movie", "Film locations for David Lean's The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957), in Sri Lanka", "How Father Brown Led Sir Alec Guinness to the Church", "sic - correct spelling is Siegertsz. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. As it opens, two POWs, the American navy commander Shears (William Holden) and an Australian, are digging graves for their companions. 's working to build and/or destroy a bridge for the Japanese during World War II. All the filming locations of The Bridge on the River Kwai are listed below. The real Bridge over the River Kwai is bridge 277 of the Burma-Siam Railway. Victims were cremated and their remains are buried in the aforementioned graves. The place: Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma. For the scene when Colonel Nicholson emerges from the oven after several days confined there, Alec Guinness based his faltering walk on that of his son Matthew Guinness when he was recovering from polio. The bridge cost $250,000 to build. David Lean was completely at home in the hot and humid Ceylon jungle. [64] The image was restored by OCS, Freeze Frame, and Pixel Magic with George Hively editing. Full scale plan drawing for the main cantilever bridge design. Boulle drew on the experiences of Far East POWs building the now infamous Burma-Siam Railway, linking modern-day Myanmar and Thailand to create his work. [22], Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by the river current during a break from filming.[23]. He served as an adviser during the making of the movie. Their roles and characters, however, are fictionalised. The Burma-Siam Railways construction necessitated construction of over 670 bridges and numerous cuttings. Carl Foreman was the initial screenwriter, but Lean replaced him with Michael Wilson. A photo of Kitulgala, Sri Lanka in 2004, where the bridge was made for the film. [66] The original negative for the feature was scanned at 4k (four times the resolution in High Definition), and the colour correction and digital restoration were also completed at 4k. Workers died at a rate of 20 men per day. What's happening in this "The Bridge on the River Kwai" movie clip?Warden (Jack Hawkins from Land of the Pharaohs and Ben-Hur) fires a mortar, wounding Nicho. Boulle based his novel, published in 1952, on his own experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and on an infamous construction project that he wasn't involved with. In many tense, dramatic scenes, only the sounds of nature are used. Both bridges stood for two years and were destroyed by bombers in 1945. The movie is based on the novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai by Pierre Boulle. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Showing the impact of disease on the workforce, Kanchanaburi contains two graves holding the ashes of 300 Cholera victims. Or maybe you have a story for us or would like to work together. The Bridge over the River Kwai (French: Le Pont de la rivire Kwa) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. [30], A 1969 BBC television documentary, Return to the River Kwai, made by former POW John Coast,[33] sought to highlight the real history behind the film (partly through getting ex-POWs to question its factual basis, for example Dr Hugh de Wardener and Lt-Col Alfred Knights), which angered many former POWs. But in 1966, the film aired on American . Join us in an act of virtual remembrance and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Kwai's composer, Malcolm Arnold, wove the march into his Oscar-winning score so seamlessly that modern viewers may assume it was original to the film. Their taskmasters were relentless. . The movie, based on the novel Le Pont de la rivire Kwa (1952) by French novelist Pierre Boulle, was adapted for the screen by Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, who were both at the time on the Hollywood blacklist. A picture of the actual bridge over the River Kwai in June 2004. In fact, there were two: one a wooden railway bridge and the other a ferroconcrete structure built using imported bridge sections from Japanese-controlled Java. Warden, Shears, and two other commandos parachute into Thailand; one, Chapman, dies after falling into a tree, and Warden is wounded in an encounter with a Japanese patrol and must be carried on a litter. After a few days, the British medical officer Major Clipton (James Donald) tries to persuade both Saito and Nicholson to compromise, but both are unyielding. Harry Cohn, the vulgar (but successful) man who ran Columbia Pictures at the time, was furious when he read the script and saw no . It was filmed in Kitulgala which is 60 . Put on your marching boots and whistle a jaunty tune as we investigate some behind-the-scenes facts about this enduring war film. Supplying it by ship was the only practical solution. These issues, running throughout the film, were addressed to a lesser extent on various previous DVD releases of the film and might not have been so obvious in standard definition.[67]. Nicholson desperately tries to keep Joyce from depressing the plunger, while Shears and Warden try to kill Nicholson. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. One of the iconic war films of its time, the Bridge on the River Kwai has shone a spotlight on POWs suffering. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel/concrete bridge a few months later. Warden responds that he already knew and that the US Navy had agreed to transfer him to the British SOE with the simulated rank of Major to avoid embarrassment. While the British prisoners celebrate their accomplishment that night, the commandoes wire the bridge with explosives to be detonated by a plunger operated by a hidden soldier, timed to collapse the bridge just as an inaugural train carrying Japanese dignitaries is crossing it. When, the next morning, Saito orders all the British prisoners to begin building the bridge under the command of a Japanese engineer, Nicholson and the other officers refuse, even when Saito threatens to kill them. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. Cast the Expert: Percy Herbert, who played the role of a prisoner of war in the film, actually spent four . International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges. No visit to the Western Front is complete without a trip to The CWGC Visitor Centre. The real River Kwai, and its bridge, is in what was then Siam, now Thailand.The name 'River Kwai' refers to the Khwae Noi and Khwae Yai rivers in western Thailand, which converge to become the Mae Klong river at Kanchanaburi, about 70 miles northwest of Bangkok, and it was across the Mae Klong that the infamous bridge was built. does not fall onto the plunger, and the bridge suffers only minor damage. Shears is enjoying his hospital stay in Ceylon unwittingly within a commando school referred to as "Force 316" (likely based on the real world Force 136 of the Special Operations Executive (SOE)). Some Japanese viewers resented the movie's depiction of their engineers' capabilities as inferior and less advanced than they were in reality. Those who were there did not think much of the novel or film of the Bridge of the River Kwai. During the cutting of Hellfire Pass, for example, 69 men were beaten to death across a twelve-week period. Everywhere in the jungle, the graveyards made their appearance; starting in a small way they gradually grew bigger, until when the railway was completed at the end of the year, thousands of bodies lay in the jungle from one end to the other.. (He didn't attend the Oscars, either.) At the POW camp, Nicholson not only requires officers to work on the bridge but also pulls men from the hospital in order to meet Saitos deadline for the project. The destruction of the bridge as depicted in the film is also entirely fictional. 26. Alec Guiness, William Holden, and Jack Hawkins in front of bridge they built in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. Has something sim'lar In a prison camp, British POWs are forced into labor. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. The Bridge On The River Kwai Film Facts. . David Lean's classic 1957 World War II movie Bridge on the River Kwai depicted the horrors endured by the Allied prisoners of war (POWs) forced to build the Thailand-Burma railway by the Japanese Imperial Army. POWs and indentured labourers were worked to death while busy constructing the railway simultaneously. But he'd never made anything on an epic scale, wasn't well known outside of England, and wouldn't have been considered for The Bridge on the River Kwai if it weren't for Katharine Hepburn, the star of his 1955 film Summertime. Under cover of darkness, Shears and Joyce plant explosives on the bridge towers. Tooseys men stated this never happened. Moreover, Kanchanaburi has an annual "Bridge Over the River Kwai" week, which has a sound show to relive the moments of World War II. One of a number of Allied POW"s . Construction of the Burma-Siam railway began in October 1942 and would end in October 1943. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. Witnessing the carnage, Clipton shakes his head and mutters, "Madness! Spiegel, the producer, bought the film rights to the book (the English version of which was called The Bridge Over the River Kwai) and hired Carl Foreman to write the script. Brigadier Varley would survive the hellish building work along the Burma-Siam Railway but not the war. Both bridges were used for two years, until they were destroyed by Allied bombing. Subsequent releases of the film finally gave them proper screen credit. Here is 'Minder' telling me to get the timber off the base and start cutting up the dowels. But, what about the real men behind the real story of the construction of the Burma-Siam Railway? Unlike the other two, it is not located in Thailand. For the scenes where William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Geoffrey Horne and the native girls had to wade through swamps, they were wading through specially created ones. Today, he rests alongside his fellow POWs in Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Burma (Myanmar). The march was written in 1914 by Kenneth J. Alford, a pseudonym of British Bandmaster Frederick J. Ricketts. Written 20 October 2021. They remain standing at attention throughout the day. Nicholson is shocked by the poor job being done by his men and orders the building of a proper bridge, intending it to stand as a tribute to the British Army's ingenuity for centuries to come. To learn more about the men behind the real story of the Bridge on the River Kwai, and to discover the casualties, please use our Find War Dead tool. The correct name for the River Kwai is Khwae Noi, meaning small tributary, which merges with Khwae Yai River to create the Mae Kong River. Himmler Pitted against the warden, Colonel . Since it first graced the silver screen won the admiration of audiences everywhere and continues to do so. Check out where to stay in Kanchanaburi and book an accommodation of your choice. The Colonel Bogey March" was composed in 1914 by Kenneth Alford, a military band conductor. It spans crosses the lazily winding Khwae Noi at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. A temporary wooden bridge was completed at the beginning of 1943 and a few months later the steel bridge (which can be seen today) was finished. Image: Bridge 277 aka the real Bridge over the River Kwai, Image: The iconic poster of the 1957 classic. The Bridge on the River Kwai. The Bridge on the River Kwai Facts for Kids. There are tourist trains to Nam Tok stopping at stations in between daily from the River Kwai Bridge station at 06.05, 11.00 and 14.30. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and scooped up seven Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor. At their head was Lieutenant-Colonel Phillip Toosey. Corrections? The action of the movie takes place in a Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in . [citation needed], Julie Summers, in her book The Colonel of Tamarkan, writes that Boulle, who had been a prisoner of war in Thailand, created the fictional Nicholson character as an amalgam of his memories of collaborating French officers. The Hitchhiker's Guide has this to say about John Rabon: When not pretending to travel in time and space, eating bananas, and claiming that things are "fantastic", John lives in North Carolina. In the film, a Colonel Saito is camp commandant. A regiment of British prisoners arrives, whistling the Colonel Bogey March, under the command of Colonel Nicholson (Sir Alec Guinness). In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . The actual name of "Bridge on the River Kwai", on the 258 mile long Burma Railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built from 1940-1944, was called Bridge 277. In 1957 the movie, The Bridge on the River Kwai, premiered in London and became the biggest grossing film of 1958, winning seven academy awards in the process, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Musical Score, Best Cinematography and Best Editing.Not bad for a movie that is largely a work of almost entirely fictional characters and a story which . In 1997, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. Get information about our funding, our Customer Charter and our Strategic Plan. He also didn't like hearing that he was Lean's second choice for the role, a fact made more awkward when he arrived in Ceylon and Lean greeted him with, "Of course, you know I really wanted Charles Laughton." Nicholson undertakes the construction of a well-made bridge, at first thinking it a good way to improve the morale and discipline of his regiment but gradually coming to regard the structure not as a part of the enemy war effort but as a monument to British ingenuity. Within 16 months the bridge was completed but it took another two years to complete the entire rail line. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was set in 1942, shortly after the fall of Singapore. Reviews There are no reviews yet. WILLIAM HOLDEN JACK HAWKINS 1957 BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 8X10 PHOTO. Lets examine the history behind the film and the men who made it. Questions or feedback on our new site? [50] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times claimed the film's strongest points were for being "excellently produced in virtually all respects and that it also offers an especially outstanding and different performance by Alec Guinness. The documentary itself was described by one newspaper reviewer when it was shown on Boxing Day 1974 (The Bridge on the River Kwai had been shown on BBC1 on Christmas Day 1974) as "Following the movie, this is a rerun of the antidote."[37]. 4. This article is part of our Classic Film Throwback series - By Sam Hendrian - "Madness. He had basically retired when Lean approached him to play Colonel Saito in Kwai, a performance that earned Hayakawa an Oscar nomination. Interested in advertising on the world's largest website dedicated to all things Britain? The US was beginning to control the sea lanes, making it increasingly difficult for Japanese shipborne cargo to reach the army dotted across the Pacific. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Addeddate 2021-08-19 15:12:20 Identifier the-bridge-on-the-river-kwai_202108 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4. plus-circle Add Review. ", Warden fires a mortar, killing Shears and Joyce and fatally wounding Nicholson. 15- "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.". Once Spiegel relented, he realized Holden was a box office draw and offered him a great deal: $300,000 salary (about $2.5 million in 2016 dollars), plus 10 percent of the gross. They felt none of the Bridge on the River Kwai cast could fully understand or represent what it was like to be there. Its telling that the railway workers had to see to their own medical care. Assistant director John Kerrison was killed in a car crash on the way to one of the locations. The Bridge Over the River Kwai won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) in 1958. They were supported by an unknown number of Malaysian labourers. 25. Of course, he could not save many of his men from expiring, but he did their best to make conditions more comfortable. Take a look below for 28 more fun and interesting facts about The Bridge on the River Kwai. The movie was mainly filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and also in England. Lambs sister received a letter from him in September 1943, saying he was in excellent health and being treated well by his captors. See some of the commonly asked questions about the Special Committee. It worked. The British soldiers were slaves; they did not help the Japanese. 15. And a bloke called George Siegatz[29] an expert whistlerbegan to whistle Colonel Bogey, and a hit was born.". Lets find out. Around 3,100 Commonwealth Burma war graves can be found at Thanbyuzayat, alongside roughly 620 Dutch burials. The bridge in the movie was near Kitulgala. 1957 World War II film directed by David Lean, This article is about the film. Roger Ebert focused on the symbolism of the bridge in this 1999 description: "[The war] narrows down to a single task, building a . This meant that some of the British prisoners were actually natives of the region wearing make-up to appear Caucasian. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [19], Guinness later said that he subconsciously based his walk while emerging from "the Oven" on that of his eleven-year-old son Matthew,[20] who was recovering from polio at the time, a disease that left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. Camps were set up at 100-metre intervals. The movie has been included on the American Film Institutes list of best American films ever made. [Ronald Searle, To the Kwai and Back: War drawings 1939-45, London, Collins, 1986, 104] 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' is now the best-known site on the Burma-Thailand railway but its fame is due more to a fictional film than its significance in World War II. It was released in the US on December 14, 1957, taking in a reported $17M+, which made it the highest-grossing film of 1957. Only in 1984 did the Academy rectify the situation by retroactively awarding the Oscar to Foreman and Wilson, posthumously in both cases. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Guinness), not to mention a handful of Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and even a Grammy nomination for its soundtrack. Bangkok-Kanchanaburi, by train or private transport, for the Bridge on River Kwai; Kanchanaburi-Nam Tok, by train or private transport, for Death Railway and Hellfire Pass; You can book your bus tickets online and in advance here. Like Chungkai and Kanchanaburi, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery was originally part of the camp set up serving the Burma-Siams construction. [21] Guinness later reflected on the scene, calling it the "finest piece of work" he had ever done. [27] Gavin Young[28] recounts meeting Donald Wise, a former prisoner of the Japanese who had worked on the Burma Railway. 9. In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th Century. Madness!" So go the tragic final words of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), a spectacular and deeply-moving WWII adventure film that still entertains and challenges over sixty years later. Along with 1,250 other POWs, he died while in transit from Singapore to Japan aboard the Rakuyo Maro transport ship after it was torpedoed by a US submarine. David Leans 1957 epic Bridge on the River Kwai is regarded as one of the all-time great war films. Train crossing the wooden bridge which spanned the Mae Klong River (renamed Kwai Yai River in 1960). Nicholson advises Saito that the officers cannot be required to do manual labour according to the Geneva Convention. [44], The film was re-released in 1964 and earned a further estimated $2.6 million at the box office in the United States and Canada[45] but the following year its revised total US and Canadian revenues were reported by Variety as $17,195,000. They included Chinese, Malayan, Burmese, Thai, Indonesian and Singaporean people. Thanbyuzayat was originally a POW administration headquarters and base camp. [54] Slant magazine gave the film four out of five stars. The two did not collaborate on the script; Wilson took over after Lean was dissatisfied with Foreman's work. [18] The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala. The Burma-Siam Railway was 250 miles of railway constructed by Allied prisoners of war alongside forced Asian labourers. Lean wanted to use the tune in Kwai, figured those lyrics wouldn't pass the censors (or the approval of the composer's widow), and opted to have the troops whistle it instead. At one point during filming, David Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by a river current. Young: "Donald, did anyone whistle Colonel Bogey as they did in the film?" The camp commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), informs the prisoners that they will all begin working on the building of a railway bridge the following day. The bridges were quickly repaired with the use of POW labour from the camp at Tha . Also, the dense surrounding jungle renders escape virtually impossible. This story is retold in: Anecdotal Tit Bits: Making "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "links for research, Allied POWs under the Japanese", "The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey and the Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey and the, "Once-Stupendous-Now-Modest $2,700,000 Budget Kept Secret; 'River Kwai's' Sockfull Gross", "Screen: 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' Opens", "Film Reviews: The Bridge on the River Kwai", "Balu Mahendra, who made his visuals speak, dies at 74", "Warren Buffett carries an American Express card and about $400 in cash", "How Cartrivision's 1972 VCR ForesawAnd ForfeitedThe Time-Shifted Future", "Movies | Disc & Digital | Sony Pictures", "Wayne and Shuster Show, The Episode Guide (19541990) (series)", Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Drama, National Board of Review Award for Best Film, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bridge_on_the_River_Kwai&oldid=1138405911, Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award-winning performance, Films featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance, Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award, Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award, Films whose director won the Best Directing Academy Award, Films whose director won the Best Director Golden Globe, Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award, Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award, Films with screenplays by Michael Wilson (writer), United States National Film Registry films, World War II films based on actual events, Short description is different from Wikidata, Album articles lacking alt text for covers, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Best DVD Original Retrospective Documentary/Featurette, Online Film & Television Association Awards, This page was last edited on 9 February 2023, at 14:21. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. Image: British troops surrender at Singapore. Lean wanted Holden, a big star and recent Oscar winner (for Stalag 17), to play American prisoner Major Shears, over the objections of producer Spiegel, who wanted Cary Grant. John Coast, a young British officer who went on to become a successful filmmaker who spent three and half years as a Japanese POW, said: As nobody should ever have need telling, the picture is a load of high-toned codswallop.. [13], Many directors were considered for the project, among them John Ford, William Wyler, Howard Hawks, Fred Zinnemann, and Orson Welles (who was also offered a starring role). Contact us, Image: Rows of graves at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Image: Kanchanaburi Dutch Memorial commemorates Dutch POWs who died building Death Railway, Image: Chungkai War Cemetery's Cross of Sacrifice, Image: The Pavilion at Chungkai War Cemetery, Image: The cemetery's horticulture gives Chungkai a sense of serenity, Image: The Stone of Remembrance at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Image: Headstones and horticulture at Thanbyuzayat, Get the latest CWGC news and see some of our recent work, Report of the Special Committee to review historical inequalities in Commemoration, Discover world war casualties who lived in your area, The True Story of the Bridge over the River Kwai, Why and how were restoring the Menin Gate: What you need to know about this amazing project, A push through the desert: How The Allies Captured Jericho in 1918, Visit Commonwealth war graves in Arras, France. All Rights Reserved. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a classic 1957 British-American war film based upon the 1952 novel Le Pont de la Rivire Kwai by Pierre Boulle. The bridge construction is going badly, however, and Saito offers concessions to Nicholson in an effort to get the structure completed on schedule. Want to work for the CWGC? The Bridge on the River Kwai was a smash hit on release. [56] Warren Buffett said it was his favorite movie. Just as in Love is a Many Splendored Thing, normally hairy chested William Holden had to have a full body wax for his many shirtless scenes in the movie. 21. The surviving sections stand as monuments to the men who suffered so much to build them. He didn't like the next draft of the screenplay, either, because it made Nicholson "a blinkered character." Starring Alec Guinness, William Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa, among others, it paints an .