The singer Eddy Mitchell, in a major fictional role for the first time, thought he was so bad after watching the dailies that he insisted to do some of his scenes once again. Because no one would agree, he jokingly stated: "since I'm actually the richest one of the crew, I'll pay for all the scenes I'm allowed to do again" and was almost taken seriously. From then on, he never went to watch the dailies again.
Tavernier has said about "Coup de Torchon," "It's about revenge, of course, but it's about something else as well. It's about God and free will, and it has a lot of religious and metaphysical implications, some of which Jean Aurenche and I invented, and some of which are in the book."
According to director Bertrand Tavernier, dry noodles were used by production designer Alexandre Trauner to create a make believe bamboo curtain because no bamboo plant would grow in the area by the time the film was shot. Cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn had therefore to take care not to overheat the set to prevent those noodles to stick to each other.
France's official submission as Best Foreign Language Film to the 1983's Oscar.
Jean Aurenche, the screenwriter had a publicity agency in the 30s. The agency employed Marcel Carné and Robert Bresson. The short shown before Alerte ... in the outdoors cinema was one of his for the Galeries Barbès in Paris (The subtitles on Criterion write wrongly Barbe's ) The movie has as actors Paul Grimault as the condemned man, Artigas as the captain and Jean Anouilh and Max Ernst as 2 of the soldiers.