DOCTOR ZHIVAGO - Trivia and Other Fun Stuff

David Lean's epic film was not the first adaptation of Doctor Zhivago. In 1959 a mini-series based on the book aired on Brazilian television. It was shot in Portuguese.

Boris Pasternak's novel was 512 pages long. A film incorporating every scene in the novel would run 52 hours. David Lean's film version ran 197 minutes at its premiere and 180 minutes in general release. The 2002 British miniseries runs 485 minutes.

It took two planes to carry the production team and equipment to Finland to shoot Finland was the closest the production would come to the USSR. Some scenes were shot just 75 miles from the Soviet border.

Although their pairing sizzled on-screen, Omar Sharif and Julie Christie barely connected off-screen. He complained about her habit of eating fried egg sandwiches during breaks in the shooting, which he found distinctly unromantic. For her part, when questioned about their work together 17 years later, Christie said, "He was charming, but otherwise I don't remember anything about him really...I can't even remember if I have ever met him since."

Omar Sharif's son Tarek played the young Zhivago. Sharif even directed his scenes as a way of getting closer to the character. The star agreed to the casting on condition no photos of the boy be used in publicity. He didn't want to interfere with the boy's childhood. When other film offers came in for Tarek, Sharif turned them all down.

Make-up artists taped back Omar Sharif's eyes to give him a more Russian look.

The ice for the "ice palace" -- the abandoned, frozen country estate in which Zhivago and Lara share their final days of happiness -- was made mostly from wax.
,br> The production crew for Doctor Zhivago consisted of 120 plasterers, 210 carpenters, 60 masons, 25 tubular steel specialists, 30 painters, 20 electricians and more than 300 back-up technicians.

The film used 10,000 extras, 3,500 of them in the Moscow street scenes.

In one scene of social unrest before the Russian Revolution, the extras were so convincing that police swarmed the set thinking they were stopping an uprising against General Franco.

It took an orchestra of 110 to record the film's score. Twenty-two of them were balalaika players.

FUN QUOTES FROM DR. ZHIVAGO (1965)

"If they were to give me two more excavators, I'd be a year ahead of the plan by now."
"You're an impatient generation." -- Mark Eden as the Engineer showing Alec Guinness as Yevgraf the future of the Soviet Union.

"Good marriages are made in heaven...or some such place." -- Ralph Richardson as Gromeko.

. "Who are you to refuse my sugar? Who are you to refuse me anything?" -- Rod Steiger as Komarovski attacking Julie Christie as Lara for refusing his advances.

"Now, that your tastes at this time should incline towards the juvenile is understandable; but for you to marry that boy would be a disaster. Because there's two kinds of women. There are two kinds of women, and you, as you well know, are not the first kind. You, my dear, are a slut" -- Steiger as Komarovski puncturing Lara's dreams.

"What happens to a girl like that when a man like you is finished with her?"
"You interested?...I give her to you, Yuri Andreavich. Wedding present." -- Omar Sharif as Zhivago asking Steiger about Lara's future.

"They rode them down, Lara. Women and children begging for bread. There will be no more 'peaceful' demonstrations." -- Tom Courtenay as Pasha.

"If we'd had children, Yuri, would you like a boy or girl?"
"I think we may go mad if we think about all that."
"I shall always think about it" -- Lara and Zhivago dream of what might have been.

"Tonya, can you play the balalaika?"
"Can she play? She's an artist!"
"Ah, then it's a gift." -- Yevgraf receiving confirmation from the Engineer that Tonya (Rita Tushingham) is Zhivago and Lara's daughter.

Compiled by Frank Miller