The film was originally called
The Chasanow Story and was announced in March 1956. It was based on a series of articles by Anthony Lewis. The producer was Herbert Swope and the writer director was Phillip Dunne, who had just collaborated on
Hilda Crane. The title was eventually changed to
Three Brave Men, based on the title of a newspaper editorial after Chasanow had been reinstated. Producer Swope wanted
Ernest Borgnine to play Chasanow and
Alan Ladd to play his attorney. Eventually the leads were played by Borgnine and Ray Milland. Filming began in September. Borgnine was loaned out by
Hecht Hill Lancaster. He later sued that company for money owing him on the fees he (and they) earned on
The Catered Affair,
The Best Things in Life Are Free and
Three Brave Men.
Script In July 1956, Twentieth-Century Fox submitted to the U.S. Navy a copy of the screenplay for review as a general cooperative "voluntary censorship" act routinely practiced at the time when a film involved the U.S. military. The acting Secretary of the Navy,
Thomas S. Gates, Jr., found it misleading and at his request Dunne produced a revised version making it clear, in the Navy's words, that "the Chasanow case was far from being a typical case and that under current procedures it could not happen again." He also removed direct references to antisemitism as a motivation for the proceedings against Chasanow. Another draft was required to identify international Communism as the threat that required rigorous security procedures. In his autobiography, Dunne regretted that he did not make the film he first imagined, "a Kafkaesque tale of the denial of human rights," "a story (the true one) of unseen terror, of a man fighting in the dark against unseen enemies," unable to draw upon his constitutional rights to defend himself. The point of view, he wrote, became that of the Navy and its crusade to maintain security, making only a rare mistake. The film's closing words delivered by a Navy official whitewashed the Navy's responsibility for Chasanow's persecution: "A free country learns from its mistakes. I offer you the Navy's apology for the grave injustice you've suffered." ==References==