Jane Fonda signed for the film but was arrested in Cleveland in November 1970 for drug trafficking. Released on bail, the actress could not leave leave the American territory. She was replaced by Marion Game.
The subject was taken from current events: the director of a major newspaper (Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber of the Express) had stood in the legislative elections against a Communist candidate. In this industrial region, the Workers' Party was well established, so the Communist candidate was well placed, but he had dipped into the coffers of the local party for his mistress. The scandal was revealed, and the newspaper editor had won the election. So Jean-Pierre Mocky came up with the idea of setting the prisoner's escape against the backdrop of this scheme, by adding a daughter to the politician on the run whom the prisoner would take hostage.
Following this film, Jean-Pierre Mocky fell out with Gilles Jacob, then-president of the Cannes Film Festival, the latter having chickened out and withdrawn the glowing article he was planning to write about the film in the newspaper L'Express, whose boss had been alluded to in the film for his election campaign. Mocky attributes this to the fact that under Gilles Jacob's reign, none of his films were ever selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
Underwent a 4K restoration in 2022 at the Éclair laboratory by Mocky Delicious Products with support from the CNC.
The film is dedicated to Bourvil, who was meant to have a role in the film but passed away from cancer about three and a half months before film.