This film was part of the American Film Theatre series, an experiment in marketing films (all based on plays) that would not otherwise have been able to get financing. Instead of being released to the general public, only people who purchased a subscription to the American Film Theatre series could buy tickets to any of its films. (Exceptions were made for movie critics and members of award-granting organizations, such as the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which awards the Oscars.) As a result, only a small number of people ever saw any of the films in their theatre runs. To enhance the value of the subscriptions, subscribers were guaranteed that the films would never be shown on television and never released to the general public. Legal issues connected with these guarantees kept this film from being available in any form for nearly 3 decades. It was finally released on DVD in 2003. The American Film Theatre experiment was abandoned after 2 years.
Richard Pryor claimed to have seen the film 40 times. He eventually married Jennifer Lee Pryor who plays Laura Shavelson.
Unhappy with Edward Anhalt's adaptation of his play to the screen, playwright Robert Shaw had his name removed from the credits. In a 2005 interview, Arthur Hiller confirmed that Shaw asked that his name be put back on the film after he saw the finished movie. However, by that time, all prints had been made and it was too late to include his name in the titles. Alternatively, according to the DVD, another reason cited was because Shaw had died.
The Nuremberg Trials are mentioned in the film. Lead actor Maximilian Schell previously had won Academy Award (Oscar) in the a Best Actor in a Leading Role category for playing a defense lawyer in Vincitori e vinti (1961).
Robert Shaw originally wrote the source play as a novel. Harold Pinter encouraged him to adapt the novel as a play. Apparently, Shaw once said in an interview that Pinter virtually had done the adaption to a play himself.