A very troubled production, this movie went way over budget and was a box-office flop when released. Director Blake Edwards used the experience of making this movie as the inspiration for the script to S.O.B. Nos Bastidores de Hollywood (1981).
Because of the students' rebellion and strike that paralyzed Paris, France in May 1968, the film production was moved to Brussels, Belgium to film the major scenes (June to July 1968). The ground floor of the Superior Court building was transformed into a Paris railroad station with fake trains, a waiting room and all of the other accessories.
Blake Edwards suffered continual interference from the studio - including them hiring people behind his back and claiming he had agreed to it - that he ended up taping his conversations with them for the sake of his own sanity. He used this to catch a studio head out later on in production.
Despite featuring stripteases, a violent climax, and harsh language - this movie received a "G" rating. The studio even marketed it as another family-friendly musical along the lines of Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965). The newspapers then received several angry letters from parents who had gone to see this movie with their children, and were appalled by the risque content.
One of the first movies to use "video assist" - the process of using a monitor to show what the cameras were shooting and watching the footage afterwards.