Provenance Of

The influences behind Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

39 works across 28 centuries, back to Odyssey.

  1. Cover of The Dirty Dozen

    1965

    The Dirty Dozen

    E. M. Nathanson

    Postwar American popular fiction. United States. Written in English.

    A bestselling novel about a US Army major who turns military prisoners into a commando unit before D-Day.

    What it handed down

    To The Dirty Dozen (1967)

    Direct source, well documented.

    Aldrich's film adapts Nathanson's bestseller. It keeps the premise of Major Reisman training condemned prisoners for a raid on a château before D-Day.

    Where it came from

    The line stops here: built on a wartime rumour of convict commandos; literary debts not documented.

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Preview card: the tree of influence behind Once Upon a Time in Hollywood