Filming in Kilkenny, Ireland, caused great controversy and consternation in March 1968 when it was announced that several nude scenes would have to be filmed.
Based on a novel by Henry Fielding. Six years before this film Susannah York had a featured role in an adaptation of another Fielding novel, Tom Jones (1963), as did Peter Bull, who appears in a supporting role.
Although it takes its title and some of its plot from the popular musical play, this film leaves out all of the show's songs, has no other music from the stage version, changes many story details and takes its lead character (played by top-billed Christopher Plummer) from an entirely different play, Sir John Vanbrugh's "The Relapse"--which is set in a different historical period (and century).