On Albert Finney, director John Huston said, "I think it's the finest performance I have ever witnessed, let alone directed".
78 year old (at the time) director John Huston was the seventh and first successful person to option and film Malcolm Lowry's novel "Under the Volcano". Huston's predecessors who unsuccessfully had options on the book included directors Luis Buñuel, Ken Russell, Joseph Losey, Jules Dassin and actor Zachary Scott who had been the first way back in 1957 around ten years after the source book had been first published.
Luis Buñuel had tried to get a movie of this story mounted around 1964-1965 starring Laurence Olivier and Jeanne Moreau.
Reportedly, director John Huston wanted to make this film for thirty years, during which time he read more than twenty screenplay adaptations of its source novel.
The film garnered composer Alex North his thirteenth and final Academy Award nomination. North never won an Oscar until he was awarded an Honorary statuette a year after this film received two Oscar nominations, one for its score and one for Best Actor - Albert Finney.