Garrie Bateson was a cinema student at the University of Southern California when he started writing "a black comedy on capital punishment" in 1968. He submitted his original screenplay to his instructor, the noted screenwriting teacher
Howard A. Rodman, who showed it around to others in the industry. Director
Jack Smight liked the script and MGM agreed to finance it ($1.8 million). Bateson was about 22 years old when
La balade du bourreau (1970) premiered in October 1970.
