Director John Ford showed up on the set, and let John Wayne know that he wanted to direct some of the picture. Wayne sent him out with a small crew to do some second-unit work, mostly of Mexican cavalry riding through the countryside as they approached the Alamo, and Frankie Avalon estimated that the footage filmed by Ford made up approximately 10%-15% of the finished film. Other sources, however, have said that Wayne eventually deemed most of Ford's footage unusable, and little if any of it made it into the final cut of the film. According to these sources, the footage that Ford believed he shot of the Mexican cavalry patrolling the countryside was actually re-shot by a second-unit director, although Wayne didn't have the heart to tell Ford.
During the battle sequence, one of the cannons rolled over the foot of Laurence Harvey, breaking it at the instep. He continued with the scene, eventually treating the injury himself.
In the mid 1990s, a private Canadian film collector discovered what was believed to be the last surviving print of the 70mm premiere version in pristine condition. MGM used the print to make a digital video transfer of the roadshow version for VHS and LaserDisc but unfortunately stored it improperly in an archive where it dramatically deteriorated.
Lieutenant Finn's fall from his horse was unscripted and unintentional.
Originally to save on expenses, Wayne planned to shoot the film in Mexico. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas (the custodians of the real Alamo) sent him a letter that if he pursued with that course of action that he had better not show the film in Texas. Consequently Wayne found an amenable landowner, Happy Shahan, who allowed the production to film on his 20,000 acre ranch in Bracketville, Texas. When Wayne asked to meet the builder, he was introduced to a Mexican immigrant. A rather dubious Wayne asked him "Do you think you can build the Alamo?" to which the Mexican replied "Do you think you can make a picture, Mr Wayne?"
Shot over a period of 83 days.
The Alamo Village set near Brackettville was built "180 degrees out" from the actual Alamo layout in San Antonio. In other words, the facade of the chapel faces West in San Antonio, but it faces East in Alamo Village. When an Alamo Village employee was asked why this was done, he replied that, since there were several scenes set at dawn, director Wayne did not want to set up and shoot those scenes at dawn, but rather at sundown, which would be easier on the crew, and the audience would not know. He also said that Wayne thought that a small hill, located to the West of the Alamo Village set, would look good as a backdrop to some of the shots of the chapel. No such hill exists East of San Antonio.
The climactic battle scenes involved 7,000 extras, 1,500 horses and 400 Texan longhorn cattle.
The film was given a tenth anniversary re-release in 1970, one year before being shown on television for the first time.
The film's first telecast was in two separate parts on two successive nights, since the normal running time of a network broadcast of a feature film was usually limited to two hours. Few films running three hours or more were telecast in one evening at that time. However, the longest uncut telecast of a film up to that time, the 1959 "Ben-Hur", was first presented in 1971, the same year that "The Alamo" was first shown on TV, and ran five full hours because of commercial breaks.
The gun carried by Bowie was a Nock Volley Gun. It was developed for the English Navy, the idea being to fire all seven barrels at once to sweep the decks of opposing ships or destroy rigging. It was an unsuccessful design as the recoil from all seven barrels going off at once was too powerful for one man.
The huge Alamo set took two years to construct.
The original blueprints of the Alamo were used to recreate the replica building.
The set - now called Alamo Village - has since been used in over 100 other Westerns.
The set in which the film was made, now called "Alamo Village" is opened to the public in Bracketville, Texas, where there are shows, shops, and most of the buildings (including the Alamo Fort) are opened to the public daily.
The Ybarra set was later used in several films and each made additions. By 1985, however, the set was mostly in ruins, and much of it was pulled down. Using plans and period drawings, the set was rebuilt for Alamo: The Price of Freedom on its old foundations, this time to full scale under Production Designer/Art Director Roger Ragland. The new set is still in use. Both Lonesome Dove and Bad Girls have used the historically correct facade.
Wayne lobbied hard for Republic studios to fund a big budget Western. Republic, who dealt with low-budget B-movies, turned him down so Wayne was forced to finance much of the film himself. He took out a second mortgage on his homes and secured loans on his cars and yacht.