Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) on Netflix
Approved19662h 26mAdventureDramaHistory
Army Reserve colonel David 'Mickey' Marcus is asked by Haganah agent Major Safir to help prepare troops for the coming state of Israel. The Pentagon lets him go only as a civilian.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.3/104,483 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
David 'Mickey' Marcus is an Army Reserve colonel in the Judge Advocate General's Corps who has lately been released from active duty and now works in New York City. Major Safir, an agent of the Haganah, comes to him for help in getting the troops of the coming Israeli state ready for the invasion its Arab neighbors have promised once partition is granted. The Pentagon will not permit him to serve in uniform, so he travels as a civilian under a false passport bearing the name Michael Stone. In Israel he is met by Magda Simon, a member of the Haganah, and finds soldiers who view the American officer among them with suspicion.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Israeli Army soldiers served as extras in Cast a Giant Shadow, and the real war kept interrupting the shoot: troops were pulled off the set to fight skirmishes against Jordanian forces or Palestinian fedayeen.
- Melville Shavelson wrote a treatment about Mickey Marcus in 1948, but no studio would touch it because the industry shied from Jewish subjects and feared Egyptian theaters would be expropriated; he also alleged a "pogrom mentality" among some Jewish executives.
SPOILER
Michael Douglas, the star's son, was originally intended to play the sentry who shoots Kirk Douglas's Mickey Marcus at the end, but the scene was cut because casting the lead actor's son was deemed gimmicky.- Before Kirk Douglas took the part, George Segal was planned as Mickey Marcus, with Diana Hyland as Emma and either Claudia Cardinale or Daliah Lavi as Magda Simon; Carolyn Jones and Richard Harris were also considered.
- The last week of production moved to Italy because of housing shortages in Israel and a booking mistake that let the crew's Tel Aviv hotel reservations expire one week early.
