THE DAY OF THE JACKAL - Trivia and Other Fun Stuff

Born in Vienna, Fred Zinnemann's long and distinguished career began with his contribution to Menschen am Sonntag (1930), the documentary-style look at pre-Nazi Berlin that was also directed by future film greats Curt and Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer (with a script by the Siodmaks and Billy Wilder).

Zinnemann had one of Hollywood's most successful careers, winning Academy Awards® for his direction of From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man for All Seasons (1966) and nominated five other times. He also won a Best Documentary Short Subject Oscar® for Benjy (1951). He won a number of other awards for his work on High Noon (1952), A Hatful of Rain (1957), The Nun's Story (1959), and Julia (1977). His four citations from the New York Film Critics Circle have been unmatched by any other director in the post-war period.

Second unit director Andrew Marton once had a fairly successful directorial career on such productions as King Solomon's Mines (1950), The Thin Red Line (1964), and Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965). In the late 60s, the Hungarian native returned to Europe, where he did uncredited directorial work on a couple of films. The Day of the Jackal was his last film before his death in 1992.

A year after this movie, Derek Jacobi appeared in another thriller adapted from a Frederick Forsyth novel, The Odessa File (1974). Jacobi, one of England's most respected actors, is probably best know for his portrayal of the title character in the BBC and PBS mini-series I, Claudius (1976).

Cyril Cusack, who plays the gunsmith, is the father of actress Sinead Cusack, wife of Oscar®-winner Jeremy Irons.

Delphine Seyrig, who plays the woman The Jackal sleeps with and then murders, was one of France's most successful and famous stars. She appeared in internationally acclaimed films by Luis Bunuel - The Milky Way (1969), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972); Alain Resnais - Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Muriel (1963); and Joseph Losey - Accident (1967), A Doll's House (1973). She also appeared in the beat generation short, Pull My Daisy (1958) with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the cult vampire thriller Daughters of Darkness (1971) and Chantal Akermann's experimental drama, Jeanne Dielman 23 Quai du Commerce (1976).

Olga Georges-Picot, the conspirators' mole in the French government, played the small role as the lustful Countess Alexandrovna in Woody Allen's Love and Death (1975). She committed suicide in 1997 at the age of 53.

Composer Georges Delerue also wrote the original music for Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons (1966) and Julia (1977).

Screenwriter Kenneth Ross also adapted for film Forsyth's novel The Odessa File (1974) and wrote the play that was the basis for the movie Breaker Morant (1980).

There is a noticeable continuity error in the opening sequence of the failed assassination attempt on De Gaulle. The presidential car is seen having its rear window completely shot out by assassins bullets, but when it pulls up to the airport, the window is damaged but intact.

There are 31 individual insert shots of clocks in the movie. By contrast, Zinnemann's High Noon (1952), also concerned with the passage of time, contains only 13 insert shots of clocks.

Famous Quotes from THE DAY OF THE JACKAL

JACKAL (Edward Fox): Half a million.
ROLLAND (Michel Auclair): Half a million new francs?
JACKAL: Dollars.
ROLLAND: You are crazy!
JACKAL: Considering you expect to get France itself, I'd say it was a very reasonable price.

JACKAL: It's possible. The point is getting away with it. And speaking as a professional, that's a very important consideration.

JACKAL: Not only have your own efforts failed, but you¿e simply queered the pitch for everyone else.

GUNSMITH (Cyril Cusack): Will you be trying for a head or chest shot?

BERTHIER (Timothy West): Action service can't destroy him; they don't know who to destroy. Territorial surveillance can't pick him up at the border because they don¿ know what he looks like. The gendarmes, all 48,000 of them, can't pursue him; they don't know who to pursue. And the police can't arrest him; how can we? We don't know who to arrest.

JACKAL: Boring, aren't they? The magazines?
COLETTE (Delphine Seyrig): Oh, I find them endlessly fascinating.
JACKAL: What, articles on pig breeding and combine harvesters?
COLETTE: I'm enthralled by combine harvesters. In fact, I yearn to have one, as a pet.

MINISTER (Alan Badel): The President rekindles the eternal flame at 10.

MINISTER (referring to the dead Jackal): Who the hell was he?

Compiled by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford