David Wolper and Cinema 5 got audiences into theatres to see this documentary by promoting it as if it were a science fiction thriller.
This film was released on a double-bill with the original "Willy Wonka" movie (also a Wolper production) in the summer of 1971.
The film is mentioned in Judith Guest's novel, Ordinary People.
Won the Academy Award in 1971 for best documentary. This is a powerful movie, although much of it doesn't bear close scrutiny, and a lot of it is fiction, including the name of the narrator who is not this fictional doctor scientist Nills Hellstrom he calls himself. It's actually Lawrence Pressman, a well-known character actor in the 70s and 80s who appeared in movies like 9 to 5 opposite Jane Fonda. He was also frequently a villainous character in TV shows like MASH, One Day At A Time and The Practice. Pressman got his name starring in this hoax movie pretending to be mad scientist, which was so effective it won the Academy Award, as mentioned earlier.