On the first day director Billy Wilder's hero Erich von Stroheim, arrived on set, Wilder ran to the wardrobe department to welcome him. He said, "This is a very big moment in my life . . . that I should now be directing the great Stroheim. Your problem, I guess, was that you were ten years ahead of your time." Von Stroheim replied, "Twenty."
For the first shot of Erich von Stroheim as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in this film, director Billy Wilder shot him in a close-up from the back of his neck as an establishing shot. Wilder said, "Standing with his stiff fat neck in the foreground he could express more than almost any actor with his face."
Although the setting of the film is the fictional Egyptian town of Sidi Halfaya, it was originally to be set in the actual town of Sidi Barani, which had been captured by Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps in 1941 and taken back by the British army the next year.
Erich von Stroheim (Field Marshal Erwin Rommel) dictatorially insisted on improving his own military uniform and got permission from Paramount to design this costume as well as his hair and makeup. He studied photographs of Rommel and made requests for specific equipment, clothing and props. These included authentic German field glasses, a whisk and a 35mm Leica camera with actual film. These items were all fully functional and of the correct provenance. Von Stroheim maintained that his performance could be affected by incorrect accouterments, as an actor would know if the items he was wearing or using were not authentic. Director Billy Wilder queried him about the real film in the camera, which wouldn't be seen by viewers; von Stroheim replied, "An audience always senses whether a prop is genuine or false." In real life Rommel dressed casually and wore loose-fitting uniforms, yet von Stroheim demanded that he wear "a uniform as it is supposed to be worn." Von Stroheim believed that Rommel never took off his cap in the desert sun and so did not have sunburn face make-up above his eyes.
The tank seen at the start of the picture was an actual American army tank but not authentically a British one. It was loaned to the production by a neighboring American army base. The production had attempted to get a real British tank but had had their request knocked back.