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5 things you didn't know about 'The Princess Bride'


If you go

What: The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 27

Where: Penn State York's Pullo Center, 1031 Edgecomb Ave., York

Cost: $39

Purchase tickets: Buy tickets at the Pullo Center box office, call 717-505-8900 or visit pullocenter.yk.psu.edu .

More information: Visit pullocenter.yk.psu.edu .

Westley from "The Princess Bride" is coming to York? Inconceivable!

To promote his new book, "As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride," Cary Elwes (Westley) will share behind-the-scenes secrets from the movie after a showing of the classic 1987 film June 27 at The Pullo Center.

"I always get asked by fans, 'Was it as much fun making the film as it looked?'" Elwes said in an interview Thursday. "I always say it was more fun That's really one of the reasons that I wrote this book to share with the fans how much fun we all had making it."

True "Princess Bride" fans have probably seen the movie countless times. But even if you have every line memorized, here are five things about the movie you might have never noticed.

1. Elwes had a broken toe.

Within the first two weeks of filming, Elwes said he broke his toe fooling around on Andre the Giant's all-terrain vehicle. (He'll reveal more about that story at the event). If you look closely, you can see Elwes limping in several scenes, including the scene where he's running toward the Fire Swamp — well not so much running as dancing, he said.

"I tried very hard to hide it, but there were days when I couldn't," he said.

2. Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) is afraid of heights.

"All of the scenes climbing the Cliffs of Insanity, he's not acting," Elwes said. "Well, he's acting being upset, but what's really going on is he's absolutely petrified."

3. Elwes used two stunt doubles in the film.

Elwes used a stunt double for the acrobatics in the sword-fighting scene and the scene where Westley rolls down the hill. But the rest of the sword fight was all Elwes and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya). That scene took about a week to film, Elwes said. He and Patinkin trained for three weeks, about five to eight hours a day, as well as in between set-ups and takes on set.

"It was the last scene we shot in the movie, so it was very detail oriented and couldn't be done in just one day," he said. "It was definitely a challenge, no question about it. I'm not very ambidextrous."

4. Christopher Guest (Count Rugen) actually knocked Elwes unconscious.

Elwes woke up in the hospital and had to get stitches after filming this scene in "The Princess Bride."

"Poor Chris misjudged the distance between the sword and my head," Elwes said. "In his defense, I told him to go ahead and give me a light tap so we could make it look more real, and that was my fault because it was not a prop sword."

5. Westley and Buttercup's kissing scene near the end of the movie took about six takes.

When you watch this scene in the movie, know that it didn't come easy. It took about six tries to get it right, Elwes said, partly because director Rob Reiner didn't want the movie to end, and partly because Elwes and Robin Wright (Buttercup) couldn't stop giggling.

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