Filming the Dirty Dozen

I recently scanned the photos below, which my dad took during the filming of ‘The Dirty Dozen’ in 1966 and thought they might be of interest to forum members.

The scene being shot is where the Dozen are taking part in a military exercise in England in order to prove their suitability for their planned mission. They are part of the blue force, wearing blue armbands, driving in a troop carrier through a village when they emerge onto the village green and come across part of the red force. They immediately reverse back into the side road, swap their blue armbands for red ones and then carry on to take the red force by surprise.

The village green was in the picturesque village of Aldbury in Buckinghamshire, while the side road was Pickford Road in the (much less picturesque) village of Markyate in Hertfordshire (where the training camp scenes were also filmed). I think the Pickford Road location was chosen because my grandparents’ shop provided a suitable backdrop, being something of a 1940s time capsule inside and out, so it needed little set-dressing to make it look as it would have done a quarter of a century previously.

I was housebound with measles at the time, so I missed the excitement, but my dad managed to get along there with his camera. This first shot is of the Dozen in their troop carrier. Charles Bronson is seated by the door and Telly Savalas is at the wheel.

Clint Walker posing for the locals between takes.

Four of the cast, including singer-turned-actor Trini Lopez in the middle and American football-player-turned-actor Jim Brown.

And finally a crude TV screen shot, from the film, of my grandparents’ shop, with the troop carrier just disappearing out of shot.