The film was not a box-office success, although John Huston noted in his autobiography, An Open Book, that it was highly praised in France, where there was a greater understanding of the historical context.
Two weeks before filming wrapped, Anjelica was sent to the studio of the new set photographer to take some headshots for the film. Midway through the session, the photographer tricked 17 year old Anjelica into taking her clothes off for him. Although Huston said that she was highly uncomfortable, she complied with the request because she had done several scenes in the film that required partial nudity, and assumed it was part of the assignment. Shortly before the films release, the nude photos taken from this photoshoot appeared in an Italian soft-porn magazine, much to her embarrassment and humiliation.
The experience working on this film for Anjelica Huston was so arduous that it deterred her from acting for nearly a decade.
Betsy Blair, already a founding producer with Garance Films, briefly set about acquiring the rights to the original novel with the intent on making it her directorial debut. She instead sacrificed this ambition for love of director Karel Reisz, marrying and starting a new life with him in London. She abandoned the idea of directing all together.
This had several major location changes. Originally to film in France, a nationwide strike caused the producers to move to Austria. The Russian invasion of Czechslovakia then meant that the production was moved to Italy, where it filmed 50 miles outside of Rome.