Trivia

Chuck Roberson (John Wayne's longtime stuntman) was meant to double for Jim Brown on some of the riskier stunts, with director Tom Gries planning to put black-face on him. Burt Reynolds would not perform with him, deeming it improper, and stated "Those days are gone, you better get a black stuntman here right now." When the production manager stated it was not in the budget, and "Fox would never go for it," Reynolds paid $500 out of his own pocket to pay for a black stuntman.

Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch had a falling out while making this movie. Three years later, they both starred in Les poulets (1972). However, Welch only agreed to do the movie after it was agreed that she would not have to appear in any scenes with Reynolds. They would remain enemies until 1982 when the producers of Rue de la sardine (1982) fired Welch, claiming she was unprofessional, and replaced her with Debra Winger. Reynolds testified on her behalf stating "Although Raquel and I don't like each other, she was always on time, well-prepared, and thoroughly professional." She ended up winning $10.8 million.

While filming the fight on the cliff-top, Jim Brown mentioned to Burt Reynolds that he wasn't too keen on being so close to the edge of a serious drop. Reynolds replied, "If we fall, the newspapers will say 'Jim Brown and unknown actor die.'"

There were a number of press reports that Jim Brown and Raquel Welch clashed during filming. Brown later said "The thing I wanted to avoid most was any suggestion that I was coming on to her. So I withdrew. If I'd tried to socialize, we'd have had problems. You know, Raquel is married too and out of respect for her husband I wanted to deal with Raquel through him. She was so suspicious and concerned that we were there to steal something away, or something. You can get very hung up on who's going to get the close ups and so on... [Burt Reynolds] was usually a stabilizing influence [between the stars]... He's a heck of a cat. He had various talks with Raquel and tried to assure her that nothing was going on, that we weren't trying to steal anything." Reynolds confirmed that. "I spent the entire time refereeing fights between Jim Brown and Raquel Welch. It started because they were kind of attracted to each other. After a while they both displayed a little temperament, but don't forget we were out in the middle of the bloody desert with the temperature at 110. Of course, I don't think they'll ever work together again."

The producers wanted Raquel Welch to shower under the water-tower sans shirt. "It was just one more way of trying to get Rocky nude", Welch later said. She defied the producers and kept her shirt on. Years later, Burt Reynolds commented, "It was twice as sexy the way she did it."