The film as delivered by Elaine May was drastically re-cut and shortened ("butchered", according to some) by Paramount before its release. May sued Paramount after such drastic cuts and attempted to have her name removed from the credits, but was unsuccessful. Sadly, neither the director's cut of the film nor the original shooting script has ever been made publicly available.
The movie was shot 40 days over schedule, and required 10 months of editing.
Was the basis for the off-Broadway musical "The Green Heart" in 1997.
The running time before Robert Evans at Paramount had the film re-edited was 3 hours, and the actor who played the blackmailer (and whose part was cut from the film) was William Hickey.