Footage shot during the "Night of the Long Knives" sequence but never shown previously in the United States is restored in the 2004 DVD release. It is in subtitled German and expands the running time to two hours and thirty-six minutes.
This was the first X-rated movie to be shown on American network television, although heavily edited, and in a late-night time slot. The film was given an "X" rating by the MPAA due to a nude mother/son incest scene.
Despite being a native speaker, Helmut Berger was re-dubbed for the German-language release, due to his heavy Austrian accent.
Karl Hass, a real-life Nazi war criminal who perpetrated the Ardeatine massacre, played an extra in the film.
Filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder's favorite movie. He called it "perhaps the greatest film, the film that I think means as much to the history of film as Shakespeare to the history of theater."