Originally, Renoir was hired to do the French version of Salute to France, which had been planned in France after the Liberation, while Garson Kanin was supposed to make the English version, destined for English and American soldiers who would take part in the landing. However, when the project was already underway, it was decided that both men would work on both versions: Renoir was supposed to take care of shooting, while Kanin would be responsible for the découpage. This allowed Renoir to leave New York in mid April, prior to editing. He only saw the film years later. In May, editor Alan Antik wrote Renoir saying that the film had been reduced from eight reels to five, and later mentioned having seen, on July 14, «the disastrous film that turned into a left-over of our work». Only in 1978 did Burgess Meredith and Jean Renoir see Salute to France together. Meredith wrote: «The print we saw had nothing to do with the film that Kanin and I made. To be more precise, only one or two scenes from the original survived. That’s all».

In Jean Renoir, Lettres d’Amerique, Paris, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris, 1984