Regarding the name of the cat, Asmodeus. Asmodeus is a demon who specializes in spreading lust. He preys on common people and royalty and even divine beings.
The story was previously filmed by Fritz Lang as Chasse à l'homme (1941). This was a very free adaptation - Geoffrey Household later said that Lang had "made a smashing film", but it hadn't been much like the book. This television version also took several liberties, but was generally closer in plot and it, too, won praise from the author.
Michael Byrne plays a Nazi interrogator in this film and would go on to play a very similar role, that of a vicious Nazi officer, in Indiana Jones et la Dernière Croisade (1989). Whereas Michael Sheard plays Adolf Hitler in both this and the aforementioned Indiana Jones film. Sheard also portrayed Hitler in Hitler's Last Secret: Seeds of Destruction (1978), Les douze salopards 2: Nouvelle mission (1985) and Hitler of the Andes (2003).