Trivia for
The Dam Busters (1955) More at IMDbPro »

• The RAF supplied most of the aircraft, at a cost of 130 pounds per hour. This expense consumed 10% of the film's budget.
  
  
• A cut of the film was spiced up for the American market. Additional scenes of a plane crashing were later removed after it was spotted that Warner Brothers had used WW2 footage of a Flying Fortress (the RAF used Lancasters).
  
  
• The bombs shown in the movie were the wrong shape because the actual shape (a stubby cylinder) was still secret at the time.
  
  
• The film premiered 12 years to the day from the original raid.
  
  
• Gibson's dog "Nigger" was dubbed into "Trigger" for the US market. See also Goofs entry.
  
  
• The dog used in filming to play the part of Nigger was also called Nigger.
  
  
• This is one of the films that George Lucas used clips from to edit the rough cut of Star Wars (1977) (which utilizes many features of the finale of this film quite closely, notably the briefing, the ground staff waiting for news, the troika formation of the attacking aircraft and so on). In Addition, the following exchange from this film is reproduced almost verbatim (with the exception of the characters' names) in "Star Wars": Gibson: "How many guns d'you think there are, Trevor?" Trevor: "I'd say there's about 10 guns - some in the field and some in the tower".
  
  
• Wing Cmdr. Gibson mentioned the "Tirpitz" as a possible target. This German battleship was later sunk, by 617 Squadron, using 5-ton "earth quake" bombs called Tallboys which were also designed by Dr. Barnes Wallis.
  
  
• Feature film debut of Patrick McGoohan.
  
  
• Footage used to show the bombs as they skipped on the surface of the water towards the dams was drawn from footage of the bombs being tested. The backspin placed on the bombs, which was secret at the time, gave them gyroscopic stability when skipping across the water, then held them against the dams as they sank. To conceal the backspin, the bombs in the footage were painted over frame by frame.
  
  
• Scenes of indoor testing of the model bomb were shot at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington in the tanks where the actual tests took place.
  
  
• Richard Todd was an established star at the time with the right to refuse the studio's choice of directors. It was only after dinner with Michael Anderson (and their respective spouses) that the two men realized they got on quite well, and Todd approved Anderson as director.
  
  
• Frank Phillips repeats in the movie his official announcement of the breach of the dams, which he had read on the BBC on May 18, 1943.
  
  
• Memory of the war was still quite fresh in British minds when the movie was released in 1954. The excitement and interest generated were such that, exceptionally, the Royal Command Performance of the movie had to be repeated the following night. Frank Phillips was present and read the official announcement of the raid, as he had done on radio in 1943 and in the film.
  
  
• This film was used as inspiration for the final battle scenes in Star Wars (1977). Gilbert Taylor, Director of Photography and Stuart Freeborn, makeup supervisor for Star Wars also worked on this film.
  
  
• To avoid unwanted reflections, in numerous scenes, the actors have the lenses removed from their goggles and replaced with blank card. In the "this is bloody dangerous!" scene, it is very noticeable on the bomb aimer's goggles.
  
  

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