Curiosidades

Roger Corman told director Peter Bogdanovich that he could make any film that he wanted to, on two conditions: he had to use stock footage from the film Sombras do Terror (1963), and he had to hire Boris Karloff for two days (Karloff was under contract to Corman and owed him those two days). Karloff was so impressed with the film's script, however, that he refused any pay for any shooting time over his contracted two days. He worked for a total of five days on it.

By the time this film was made (between November 1967 and December 1967), Boris Karloff was 80 years old and in extremely poor health, was suffering from both advanced emphysema and rheumatoid arthritis (it was pneumonia, however, that would be the cause of his death on February 2, 1969), had only one-half of one lung that was still functioning (both the other half of it and all of the other lung had already been removed due to lung cancer; Karloff had been a heavy smoker for most of his adult life) and spent the time between takes confined to a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask that was connected to a mobile oxygen unit in order to breathe. He also wore braces on both of his legs and had difficulty walking or even standing up without his cane; the weakness of his legs is clearly visible in some scenes in the film. Fortunately, Karloff lived long enough both to see the finished film and to enjoy the well-deserved accolades that he received for his performance in it.

As the film includes scenes from Roger Corman's film Sombras do Terror (1963), Corman suggested to director Peter Bogdanovich that the little-known actor who appeared opposite Boris Karloff in that film should also appear in this one, perhaps in the role of the killer. Bogdanovich turned down this idea. The young actor later became world famous shortly after this film first appeared: he was Jack Nicholson.

The story that Byron Orlok tells in the film of the servant fleeing from Death is W. Somerset Maugham's short story "The Appointment in Samara." Reportedly, Karloff both nailed the telling of the story in one take and received a well-deserved standing ovation from everyone on the set.

The freeway shooting scenes in the film were "stolen", meaning that they were done without permits. Walkie-talkies were used to communicate with the cast members out on the freeway, telling them when to act as if they had been shot. Two cameras were used - one with a telephoto lens and one with a wide-angle lens. The last scene was done with the woman trying to run away, as the police had been called after someone saw her fall as if she had been shot, and the film's production crew were extremely nervous before they arrived.