Trivia for
If.... (1968)

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• The film was shot at director Lindsay Anderson's actual old school in Cheltenham, as well as Aldenham School, England.
  
  
• Contrary to the story that says some scenes of the film are in BandW instead of colour because the production company was running short of money and saved money by having some scenes processed in monochrome, according to interviews with Malcolm McDowell, Lindsay Anderson and the cameraman, they first shot the scenes in the school chapel in monochrome because they had to use natural light that came in through the big stained-glass window, requiring high-speed film. The high-speed colour stock they tested was very grainy and the constantly-shifting colour values due to the angle of the light through the stained glass made it impossible to colour-correct, as well. So they decided to shoot those scenes in monochrome, and, when he saw the dailies, Anderson liked the way that it "broke up the surface of the film", and decided to insert other monochrome scenes more or less at random, to help disorient the viewer as the film slipped from realism to fantasy.
  
  
• Malcolm McDowell's film debut.
  
  

• The first film of Simon Ward.
  
  
• Features the first instance of a full-frontal female nude passed by the British Board of Film Classification. Previously there had been instances of flashes of nakedness - notably in Michelangelo Antonioni's _Blow-Up (1966)_ -- but "If..." had a prolonged shot of featured nudity.
  
  
• In order for the full-frontal nude scene of Mrs Kemp to be passed in the UK chief censor John Trevelyan asked Lindsay Anderson to remove shots of male genitals in the shower scene. Anderson agreed to this and the film was released uncut with an X certificate.
  
  
• The painting in the dining hall is Richard Platt from Aldenham School. The Hall scene was an amalgamation of the school halls at Cheltenham and Aldenham.
  
  
• The Packhorse Cafe doesn't exist anymore. It was on the Tewkesbury Road about four miles outside Cheltenham. The road in the film is lined with Elm trees and most of them vanished in the mid-70s because of an outbreak of Dutch elm disease, they've been replaced by another type of tree.
  
  
• Although the film was shot at Cheltenham College, the script "Crusaders" was based on the authors' old school Tonbridge School. Tonbridge was the original choice for the outdoor shots, but the school declined believing it would bring bad publicity. All-boys boarding schools were receiving quite unfavourable press at the time, which might explain Tonbridge's decision.
  
  
• The title of the film was suggested by the secretary of Memorial Films when she overheard Lindsay Anderson and David Sherwin endlessly debating possible titles.
  
  
• The filmmakers sent the school a fake script omitting the students turning on the staff and parents with guns.
  
  
• Rupert Webster was dubbed by Robert Langley.
  
  
• The motorcycle stolen by Mick is a 1968 BSA A65L Lightning (654cc parallel twin).
  
  
• The final shot actually repeats the same short bit of action backward and forward several times (smoke can be seen rising and then going back down, for instance) before finally going to a freeze frame
  
  
• Based on Jean Vigo's short film, _Zero De Conduite (1933)_
  
  
• The driver of the red car stopped by Mick on the roundabout in Cheltenham was Michael Medwin, the film's producer.
  
  

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