Lawrence of Arabia 1962.

[candelabra]

Was voted the 18th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

The film took longer to make than it did for the real T.E. Lawrence to go from lieutenant to colonel, to see the desert tribes united and tip the balance in the Allies' favor against the Turks in World War I.

David Lean happened to catch a B-movie called The Day They Robbed the Bank of England which featured a young Peter O'Toole. He was immediately taken by the striking looking young actor.

The film spent 2 years in pre-production before 14 months of shooting in locations like Jordan, Spain and Morocco.

Peter O'Toole's performance as T.E. Lawrence is the #1 ranked performance of all time in Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.

Alec Guinness had a life-long interest in T.E. Lawrence, and had played him in a production of Terence Rattigan's play "Ross" on stage.
Guinness wanted very much to play Lawrence, but David Lean and Sam Spiegel both told him he was too old.
Laurence Olivier was the original choice for Prince Feisal, and Guinness was shifted to that role when Olivier turned it down.

Alec Guinness was made up to look like the real Faisal as close as possible.
When they were shooting in Jordan, several people who knew the man mistook him for the real thing.

The film was banned in many Arab countries as they felt they were misrepresented.
Omar Sharif arranged with President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt to view the film to show him there was nothing wrong with the way they were portrayed.
Nasser loved the film and allowed it to be released in Egypt where it went on to become a monster hit.

Costume designer Phyllis Dalton deliberately made Peter O'Toole's army outfit too small and ill-fitting to signify T.E. Lawrence's discomfort with the military uniform.

The famous cut from Lawrence blowing out a match to the desert sunrise was originally just going to be a dissolve.
But editor Anne V. Coates suggested to David Lean that he use the cut in the fashion of the then current French New Wave.

Peter O'Toole claimed that he learned more about acting from his few days of filming with José Ferrer than he did in all his years at drama school.

The moment when T.E. Lawrence - freshly adorned in his new flowing white robes - raises his dagger to look at his reflection was an improvisation by Peter O'Toole.
The moment would be repeated at the end of the film in a wholly different context when a battered Lawrence looks at his bloodied dagger after the battle for Damascus.

In his autobiography and in a letter to George Bernard Shaw's wife, there are indications that T.E. Lawrence was forced to perform homosexual acts for the Turkish governor of Deraa, something which this film skimmed over.
However, both friends and enemies of the governor alike vehemently dismissed Lawrence's claims as fantasies and insisted the governor was not a homosexual.

The film was largely based on T.E. Lawrence's autobiography "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," which a 1955 revisionist biography by Richard Adlington claimed was highly exaggerated.

In an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Peter O'Toole confessed quite proudly that, out of fear of falling off during a big camel riding scene,
he and Omar Sharif decided to get absolutely hammered and then tied themselves down on the camels before shooting.
By his own admission, he was so drunk he had no idea where he was or what he was doing for the entire scene (attack on Akaba).

Peter O'Toole was nearly killed during the first take of the Aqaba scene.
A gun (used to signal the beginning of the scene) went off prematurely, and O'Toole's camel panicked, throwing him to the ground, while the extras on horseback began charging.
Fortunately for O'Toole, his camel stayed still and stood over O'Toole, saving him from being trampled.

Director David Lean originally wanted Albert Finney for the title role. Katharine Hepburn urged producer Sam Spiegel to cast Peter O'Toole instead.

The character of Jackson Bentley is based on the real-life journalist and travel expert Lowell Thomas, whose writings first brought Lawrence to public attention.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1970s, Peter O'Toole was describing just how long the movie took to make by referring to the scene when T.E. Lawrence and Gen.
Allenby, after their meeting, continue talking while walking down a staircase. According to O'Toole, part of the scene had to be reshot much later,
"so in the final print, when I get to the bottom of the stairs, I'm a year older than I was when I started walking down them."

Peter O'Toole finally mastered his camel-riding technique by adding a layer of sponge rubber under the saddle to ease his bruised backside ...
a practical innovation quickly adopted by the actual Bedouin tribesmen acting as extras during the desert location filming.

Peter O'Toole claims he never viewed the completed film until nearly two decades after its original release, by which time he was highly impressed.

Alain Delon successfully tested for role of Sherif Ali but suffered problems with the brown contact lenses required for the role.
Maurice Ronet was then cast but was replaced after difficulties with his French accent and his Arab dress (Lean complained "He looked like me walking around in drag").

After deciding to cast an unknown actor in the role of T.E. Lawrence, David Lean arranged a screen test for Albert Finney shortly before the release of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which made Finney a star.
The extensive screen test involved costumes, sets and included actors Ferdy Mayne and Laurence Payne, and was shot over four days at a cost of £100,000.
In addition to Lean, the test was attended by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, assistant director Gerry O'Hara, editor Anne V. Coates, producer Sam Spiegel and Anthony Nutting, an expert on Arabian history.
It was unanimously agreed that the screen test was excellent, and Finney was offered the part of Lawrence but turned it down, as he did not want to be committed to the long-term contract he would have been required to sign.

Although 227 minutes long, this film has no women in speaking roles. It is reportedly the longest film not to have any dialog spoken by a woman.

Marlon Brando was signed for the role of T.E. Lawrence in 1960 but dropped out to take the role of Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty. After that, Anthony Perkins was also briefly considered.

Almost all movement in the film goes from left to right. David Lean said he did this to emphasize that the film was a journey.

The real T.E. Lawrence was actually riding from the Bovington Army Camp to his cottage in Cloud Hill when his tragic accident occurred.
The scenes where Lawrence was tortured and assaulted by the Turks was actually from the book "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom," the supplementary material of "Revolt in The Desert."
Due to the humiliation which he suffered, Lawrence refused to publish "The Seven Pillars," his life's work, but did publish it exclusively for 120 people only.
The 120 people who read the book were delighted with it, and the book was published sometime after Lawrence died.

While filming, Peter O'Toole referred to co-star Omar Sharif as "Fred," stating that "no one in the world is called Omar Sharif. Your name must be Fred."

T.E. Lawrence declined invitations to film his writings as early as 1926, when Rex Ingram suggested the idea.
Later, Alexander Korda tried to launch a version starring Leslie Howard, written by John Monk Saunders and directed by Lewis Milestone.
Over the years, such stars as Robert Donat, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant, Burgess Meredith, and Alan Ladd were all promoted as leads.
Screenwriter Michael Wilson finally convinced Lawrence's brother to sell the film rights to Sam Spiegel by submitting his screenplay for approval in 1960.