Louise Fletcher was so upset with the fact that the other actors could laugh and be happy while she had to be so cold and heartless that near the end of production she removed her dress and stood in only her panties to prove to the actors she was not "a cold-hearted monster".
Will Sampson, who plays Chief Bromden, was a park ranger in Oregon in a park near where the movie was filmed. He was selected for the part because he was the only Native American the Casting Department could find who matched the character's incredible size.
Author Ken Kesey was so bitter about the way the filmmakers were "butchering" his story that he vowed never to watch the completed film and even sued the movie's producers because it wasn't shown from Chief Bromden's perspective (as the novel is). Years later, he claimed to be lying in bed flipping through TV channels when he settled onto a late-night movie that looked sort of interesting, only to realize after a few minutes that it was this film. He then changed channels.
During filming, a crew member running cables left a second story window open at the Oregon State Mental Hospital and an actual patient climbed through the bars and fell to the ground, injuring himself. The next day The Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon reported the incident with the headline on the front page "One flew OUT of the cuckoo's nest".
Most of Jack Nicholson's scene with Dean R. Brooks upon arriving at the hospital was improvised - including his slamming a stapler, asking about a fishing photo, and discussing his rape conviction; Brooks's reactions were authentic.
Director Milos Forman relied heavily on reaction shots to pull more characters into scenes. In some group therapy scenes, there were ten minutes of Jack Nicholson's reactions filmed even if he had very little dialogue. The shot of Louise Fletcher looking icily at Nicholson after he returns from shock therapy was actually her irritated reaction to a piece of direction from Forman.
The script called for McMurphy to leap on a guard and kiss him when first arriving at the hospital. During filming, director Milos Forman decided that the guard's reaction wasn't strong enough and told Jack Nicholson to jump on the other guard instead. This surprised the actor playing the second guard greatly, and in some versions he can be seen punching Nicholson.
Jack Nicholson took a percentage of the profits in lieu of a small salary for a modestly budgeted film. The move paid off when the picture went on to gross well over $120 million dollars.
Louise Fletcher was signed a week before filming began, after auditioning repeatedly over six months; director Milos Forman had told her each time that she just wasn't approaching the part correctly, but kept calling her back.
In 1993, the movie was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
When Louise Fletcher neared the end of her Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech, she finished with a unique touch (a first in American Sign Language): "For my mother and my father, I want to say thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true. Thank you."
Dean R. Brooks was a psychiatrist and director of the Oregon state hospital where the film was made. During filming, Brooks correctly diagnosed William Redfield with the leukemia that would kill him 18 months later.
Kirk Douglas possessed the movie rights for a long time, before his son Michael Douglas finally started the project.
When filming the fishing scene, all of the cast except Jack Nicholson got seasick. What made it worse for them was it took a whole week to shoot it. Danny DeVito still gets queasy thinking about it.
Kirk Douglas, who owned the rights, planned to star himself, but by the time they got around to making the film he was too old.
The title derives from an American children's folk rhyme. It can be read in its entirety in the novel.
This story was based on author Ken Kesey's experiences while working at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, California.
This was the second film to win the grand slam of the Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director (Milos Forman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress. The first was It Happened One Night (1934), four decades earlier.
Mel Lambert, who played the harbor master, was a local businessman rather than an actor; he had a strong relationship with Native Americans throughout the area, and it was he who suggested Will Sampson for the role of Chief Bromden.
The cast and crew had to become accustomed to working with extras and supporting crew members who were patients at the Oregon State Mental Hospital; each member of the professional cast and crew inevitably worked closely with at least two or three mental patients.
Rumors that production shut down because Jack Nicholson had hair plugs implanted are false (this can be verified by actually looking at his scalp). The story, as related by production designer Paul Sylbert, was that Nicholson and director Milos Forman had very different ideas about how the narrative should play out; for example, Forman thought that the ward should be in bedlam when McMurphy showed up and Nicholson posited that his character would have absolutely no effect on the mental patients if they were already riled up, which would have negated the purpose of his character and therefore much of the plot. Nicholson and Forman both refused to give an inch, each believing he was right and the other was wrong. The "two months" that Nicholson was supposed to have disappeared was actually closer to two weeks, and he didn't "disappear". In actuality, Nicholson spearheaded a coup among the other actors and refused to let Forman run rehearsals, running them himself instead. During production, Nicholson and Forman spoke to each other through the cinematographer, but faked a friendly relationship when the media and studio personnel would show up to the set. This is one explanation why Nicholson doesn't appear on any of the DVD special features.
Film debuts of Brad Dourif (who received a "Best Supporting Actor" Academy Award nomination), Christopher Lloyd and Will Sampson, as well as Tom McCall (former governor of Oregon) and Dr. Dean R. Brooks, superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, the film's main shooting location.
During most of the film's shooting, William Redfield was ill. He died several months after the film was completed.
Co-producer Michael Douglas scouted various West Coast locations, and chose Oregon State Hospital because superintendent Dean R. Brooks, MD, agreed to give the filmmakers unlimited access.
Kirk Douglas first encountered the book in galley form in 1961. He instantly fell in love with it and secured the rights at the first opportunity.
Many people incorrectly remember this film as being directed by Stanley Kubrick, who directed A Clockwork Orange (1971) (with a similar theme of criminal reformation therapy) and The Shining (1980) (with a similar theme of Jack Nicholson's madness, and an appearance by Scatman Crothers). This film is often considered the best "non-Kubrick Kubrick film."
In the novel, Nurse Ratched's first name is never revealed. In the film, when the hospital committee meets to discuss McMurphy's behavior, Dr. Spivey calls her "Mildred". Also, when McMurphy returns from ECT and sits down at the group therapy session, he calls her "Mildred".
This, The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and It Happened One Night (1934), are the only films to sweep the big 5 academy awards, yet those are the only Oscars they received,
Milos Forman said he directed the movie in a naturalistic style significantly contrasting with the "totally stupid socialist rallies and movies" which were common in his native Czechoslovakia. "I was fascinated just to see real faces on the screen," he said. "That's what cinema verite [like Titicut Follies (1967)] taught me."
Most of the major studios turned down the film. One of the reasons being that it took so long to get made.
Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito and Vincent Schiavelli play the inmates of an asylum. All three ended up as villains in Tim Burton's Batman films: Nicholson was the Joker in Batman (1989), DeVito and Schiavelli were the Penguin and the Organ Grinder respectively in Batman Returns (1992).
During the ECT scene, McMurphy says "A little dab will do ya" as the nurse is putting conductor gel on the side of his head. This phrase, not in the original script, is a reference to the advertising jingle of Brylcreem hair cream, which was a popular hair care product for men in the 1960s and 1970s.
The casting of Chief proved hugely difficult as there simply weren't any giant Native Americans. The producers were on the verge of giving up the search when Will Sampson was discovered.
Toward the end of the film, when Harding and Martini are playing cards, both use the word "hovno", Harding echoing Martini. "Hovno" is a word in Czech, director Milos Forman's mother tongue, meaning "shit."
Danny DeVito reprised his performance for a 1971 off-Broadway revival.
Kirk Douglas starred in the 1963 Broadway production after buying the film rights prior to publication; he later passed the film rights to his son Michael Douglas, but kept a percentage of the profits. Every major studio had declined to make the film during the period he was trying to star in it. Kirk had met Milos Forman in Prague while on a State Department tour and promised to send him the book after deciding he would be a good director for the film; the book never arrived, probably confiscated by censors of the Czech government, which was Communist at the time. Ken Kesey wrote a screenplay for the production, but Forman rejected it because Kesey insisted on keeping Chief Bromden's first-person narration.
Director Milos Forman wanted a star in the lead role, surrounded by a cast of unknown actors. That made it more likely they would adopt him as their leader.
Louise Fletcher got the part of Nurse Ratched mainly because she could embody evil without knowing it. She believes she's helping people even when she isn't.
Danny DeVito was the first of the actors to be cast.
Louise Fletcher was in preparation to begin filming Nashville (1975) while Lily Tomlin was set to play Nurse Ratched. Ultimately the two actresses switched their roles in the two films.
The musical theme by Jack Nitzsche played during the opening and closing was based on the chord structure of the song "Please Release Me".
The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 13 November 1963 and closed on 25 January 1964 after 82 performances. The opening night cast included Kirk Douglas as R.P. McMurphy, William Daniels as Dale Harding and Gene Wilder as Billy Bibbit.
A patient hired by the production company had a stutter that he had had all of his life. He was so inspired by his responsibilities while working for the producers that his stutter permanently resolved.
Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman and Steve McQueen were offered the McMurphy role before Jack Nicholson. Burt Reynolds was also reportedly considered as McMurphy.
With the women's lib movement in full swing, many actresses didn't want to touch such an unsympathetic role as Nurse Ratched.
Ken Kesey was so upset by the finished film that he sued Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz for allegedly breaking a verbal agreement to not make wholesale changes from the novel. "They took out the morality ... they took out the Combine - the conspiracy that is America." He sued for 5% of the film's gross along with $800,000 for damages (equivalent to about $3.5 million in 2015). He eventually settled for 2.5% of the gross.
Haskell Wexler worked 31 days on the film as cinematographer. His replacement Bill Butler worked 30 days and then had to leave to work on another project. That left the door open for William A. Fraker to come on board and work uncredited on the boat sequence.
Louise Fletcher only realized that the part of Nurse Ratched was a hotly contested role among all the leading actresses of the day when a reporter visiting the set happened to casually mention it.
To call Ken Kesey's time at the VA hospital in Palo Alto is misleading. While a graduate student in Creative Writing at Stanford, he volunteered for experiments on the effects of LSD - which gave rise to the many surreal parts of the novel (deleted, along with the narrator's role, by Milos Forman). Kesey's experience with LSD led to the legendary bus trips, the Trips Festival, and all the events chronicled in Tom Wolfe's 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'.
According to Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson arrived on set sporting a large bushy beard believing his character needed it.
Jack Nitzsche was chosen as composer at the suggestion of Art Garfunkel.
According to Michael Douglas, Milos Forman had his heart set on Burt Reynolds to play the part of McMurphy. Reynolds wanted to do it after meeting with Forman, but the studio wanted a more critically acclaimed actor for the role, and chose Jack Nicholson.
Milos Forman had considered Shelley Duvall for the role of Candy. While screening Thieves Like Us (1974) to see if she was right for the role, he became interested in Louise Fletcher, who had a supporting role, and decided to cast her as Nurse Ratched. Duvall later enquired about playing the role of Rose, but was she was turned down.
A portion of the original NBC Radio broadcast of Game 2 of the 1963 World Series was used for the scene where the orderlies are listening to the game on the radio. Hall of Fame baseball announcer Ernie Harwell can be heard on the broadcast.
Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Colleen Dewhurst, Jane Fonda, Audrey Hepburn, Angela Lansbury, Jeanne Moreau, Shirley MacLaine and Geraldine Page were all offered the role of Nurse Ratched.
In later interviews, Louise Fletcher said that she found ways to make her character human, yet remain unsympathetic, ultimately deciding that Nurse Ratched actually did care about the patients and felt she was doing what was best for them, but was ultimately misguided and drunk on her own power.
Before shooting began, director Milos Forman screened the film Titicut Follies (1967) for the cast to help them get a feel for life in a mental institution.
The role of McMurphy (played by Jack Nicholson) was originally offered to James Caan.
Though veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler is credited here as DP, he was actually replaced by Bill Butler early in the shoot due to various creative differences with producer Michael Douglas.
According to Michael Douglas, before production began, he, Saul Zaentz, Milos Forman and Jack Nicholson were travelling to Salem, Oregon via Portland to meet Dean R. Brooks to determine if he could play the role of the Doctor. Around that time they had received a tip about a forest fire ranger from Yakima, Washington, Will Sampson, who could possibly play Chief, a role they had been trying to fill for a while. While waiting in the Portland airport, Sampson's flight from Yakima was arriving and as the passengers started exiting, they saw Sampson in his cowboy hat and boots, and Nicholson knew instantly that he had to play Chief. They were all so excited about finding Chief and instead of having a quick meeting in the airport so Sampson could back to Yakima, they all got in the small plane that Douglas and company were using, and went straight to Salem with Sampson. Unfortunately their plane didn't have enough seats to accommodate the extra passenger so Jack Nicholson had to sit on Sampson's lap.
When McMurphy first meets the Chief (approx. 6:16), the Chief must be standing on a lifting box. You can't see his feet in the shot. Jack Nicholson is 5 foot 10. Will Sampson is/was 6' 5". In the shot, Nicholson's shoulders appear only to come up to Sampson's elbows. Also, the finished height of most doorways is 6' 8" and Sampson's head appears to extend higher than that in the shot. Even accounting for perspective, he might be on a 5"+ box. Nowhere else in the movie is the height difference so apparent.
Accepting the Best Picture award, producer Michael Douglas said that "Cuckoo's Nest" was the first picture since It Happened One Night (1934) to receive the four major Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. However, Douglas incorrectly stated the Capra classic's year of release as 1937, not 1934.
Jack Nicholson and the film's composer Jack Nitzsche were both born on April 22, 1937.
Neither the film nor Ken Kesey's 1962 novel made specific reference to Oregon State Hospital. Kesey was inspired by his experiences working at a veterans' hospital in California, and set his novel at an unnamed institution in Oregon.
There is a rumor that Jack Nicholson underwent ECT therapy for the scene where his character does.
The magazines seen on the shelf (in the scene where McMurphy is announcing the baseball game) include National Geographic dated August 1960 and February 1961 as well as a copy of Life Magazine dated March 29, 1963.
Jon Voight lobbied for the role of McMurphy.
Dr. Dean R. Brooks who plays Dr. Spivey secured jobs for 89 patients at the Oregon State Hospital. They were used as extras and assistants.
Michael Douglas's first Oscar victory as co-producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest coincided with then girlfriend Brenda Vaccaro's first Oscar nomination for Once Is Not Enough (1975). The couple were actually seated next to each other at the 48th Academy Awards (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion - March 29 1976).
The cast and crew were concerned about the behaviour of Sydney Lassick. He exhibited increasingly unpredictable and emotionally erratic behavior during his time in character, a pattern that culminated in a tearful outburst during his observation of the final scene between McMurphy and The Chief. Lassick became so overwhelmed during the scene that he had to be removed from set.
Robert Forster was considered for the role of Martini.
The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Anjelica Huston and Saul Zaentz; and two Oscar nominees: Danny DeVito and Brad Dourif.
Having played an orderly in the stage production, Michael Douglas originally wanted to play Billy Bibbit in the film.
Bud Cort was considered for the role of Billy Bibbit.
Jack Nicholson and Milos Forman had a falling out over Jack's character's motivation during pre-production, leading to them speaking through the cinematographer and Jack not contributing anything to the film's DVD special features. Nicholson took issue with Forman's suggestion that the hospital inmates would be an unruly bunch upon the initial arrival of McMurphy. Instead, the actor insisted that such disavowal of the medical staff's authority should only begin after the introduction of McMurphy into their lives and routines.
Haskell Wexler was fired as cinematographer and replaced by Bill Butler. Wexler believed his dismissal was due to his concurrent work on the documentary _Underground_, in which the radical terrorist group The Weather Underground were being interviewed while hiding from the law. However, Milos Forman said he had terminated Wexler over mere artistic differences. Both Wexler and Butler received Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography, though Wexler said there was "only about a minute or two minutes in that film I didn't shoot."
Kirk Douglas first Milos Forman about the project, promising to send Forman a copy of the book for his perusal. Douglas mailed Forman the novel, but the package was confiscated by Czechoslovakian customs and never reached the director. Unaware of the parcel's fate, the filmmaker resented Douglas' broken promise, and Douglas thought Forman rude for never bothering to confirm receipt of the novel. It took a decade to sort the mess out, and things only cleared up when Michael Douglas took another crack at production and contacted Forman once more.
Emotionally strained by a demanding shooting schedule that kept him 3000 miles from his future wife, Rhea Perlman, Danny DeVito developed the coping mechanism of an imaginary friend with whom he would have nightly chats. Concerned that his own sanity might be slipping away, DeVito sought the advice of Dr. Brooks, who assured him that there was no reason to worry as long as DeVito could still identify the character as fictional.
All of the actors who played patients actually lived on the Oregon State Hospital psychiatric ward throughout production. The men personalized their sleeping quarters, spent their days on campus "get[ting] a sense of what it was to be hospitalized" (as Vincent Schiavelli put it), and interacting with real psychiatric patients.
Louise Fletcher was so disturbed by her own performance that she couldn't watch the film for years.
Patricia Neal wanted to play Nurse Ratched but the role ultimately went to Louise Fletcher.
Jack Nicholson thought playing the part of a mental patient was a very challenging role.
Louise Fletcher, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Michael Berryman, and Brad Dourif have all appeared in Star Trek productions.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
Because of the movie's longish six-word eight-syllable title, the picture is sometimes often referred to, particularly within the film industry, under an abridged shortened informal title, of the much shorter and more simplified name of just "Cuckoo's Nest".
Vincent Schiavelli and Brad Dourif have both played "Harkonnen's Mentat" in productions based on Frank Herbert's Dune novels.
Cameo
Anjelica Huston: Jack Nicholson's one-time girlfriend appears as one of the crowd on the pier as the fishing excursion returns.
Saul Zaentz: the film's producer appears as a man at the inmates' bus outing.
Spoilers
At first Milos Forman didn't want the fishing scene. He thought it would be more effective if the whole film was shot on the ward, so that when Chief Bromden escapes, it'd be more dramatic.
20th Century Fox was at one point interested in distributing the film, and agreed to finance the entire production if they rewrote the ending to allow McMurphy to live. Producer Saul Zaentz took the film somewhere else.
The character Ellis is shown to have had a lobotomy in a deleted scene, which is why he's withdrawn throughout the movie, foreshadowing McMurphy in the final scene.
During rehearsals for the climactic scene - where Chief smothers McMurphy - Sydney Lassick got so upset that he had to be removed from the set.