Wissenswertes

This $225,000 film reportedly became the single most profitable film of 1974 (in cost-to-gross ratio), earning $18.8 million in North America and over $30 million worldwide.

This film was one of the highest grossing independently financed films of 1974. Its success inspired Wild Drivers (1975), which, despite its title, was not a sequel to it.

The film's story was written on the back of scripts by Max Baer Jr. during breaks in filming The Beverly Hillbillies (1962).

The film is docudrama in tone. Although it was presented as "a true story" to attract a wider audience much like the Hollywood revisionist film Der Große aus dem Dunkeln (1973), its plot and characters are entirely fictional. Leif Garrett, who starred in this film, also starred in all three films of the "Walking Tall" trilogy: Der Große aus dem Dunkeln (1973), Der Große aus dem Dunkeln, Teil 2 (1975) and Der Große aus dem Dunkeln, Teil 3 - Das letzte Kapitel (1977).

The film is one of several so-called "drive-in" films that were presented as true stories (à la The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972), Der Große aus dem Dunkeln (1973), Blutgericht in Texas (1974), Vergewaltigt hinter Gittern (1976), and Der Umleger (1976)). In each case most, if not all, of what was portrayed on-screen in these films was outright fiction - with the exception of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown", which was inspired by the Phantom Killer murders of Texarkana, Texas in 1946.