Executive producer Walter Mirisch complained that John Huston acted unprofessionally in the post-production period after the shooting of this movie. The initial preview of Huston's cut of the movie in New York City was disastrous, and Huston refused to cut the movie after attending another preview, informing Mirisch, via his agent, that "he liked it just the way it is." Huston's agent informed Mirisch that his client "didn't see any reason to be present at previews." United Artists, which financed the movie, was upset over the previews, and demanded a re-edit. Huston refused to re-cut it, and the re-editing process was overseen by Mirisch. This movie was a failure at the box-office. In his 2008 memoir, "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History", Walter Mirisch writes that, "John Huston, in his autobiography, said that he was aghast when he saw what I had done in the re-editing of his picture. Responding to preview criticism, I had tried to make it less draggy and more accessible to American audiences. I saw John Huston again on a couple of occasions, many years after the release of 'Sinful Davey', and he was very cold, as I was to him. I thought his behavior in abandoning the picture was unprofessional." The two, who had worked together on Herman Melville's Moby Dick (1956), never collaborated again.
John Barry composed a score which was rejected by John Huston and Walter Mirisch for being "too serious". Unfortunately, it was apparently water damaged and no recordings seem to exist anymore.
John Huston chose to film this movie in Ireland because he was an Irish resident at the time, and was always keen to film there to help the burgeoning movie industry, and make producers aware of the fabulous locations and studio facilities.
In his 2008 memoir, "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History", executive producer Walter Mirisch says that he vetoed John Huston's desire to use his daughter Anjelica as his leading lady opposite John Hurt in this movie, the story of a Scottish rakehell. Mirisch was worried that the inexperienced Huston, who had appeared in only one other movie at the time, A Walk with Love and Death (1969), also directed by her father, would have to adopt a Scottish accent for the role. In addition, Mirisch felt that "Her appearance was rather more Italian than Scottish, and in stature, she towered over John Hurt. John and I then had a serious falling out about casting Angelica." (For the record, Angelica is officially listed as 5'10" and John Hurt at 5'9".) Mirisch and Huston butted heads over Huston's insistence that his daughter play the female lead, but Huston finally capitulated, and Pamela Franklin was cast instead. (Anjelica Huston appeared in the finished movie in an uncredited bit part.) The picture flopped, but Mirisch believed that the casting of the leading lady had nothing to do with it.
John Hurt got to know director John Boorman while filming in Ireland. After Hurt's death, Boorman recalled his belief that John Huston had "decided after the first week that the film was a dud and if he could kill or seriously injure his star it would be cancelled and the insurance would pay up," and that Huston had him undertake dangerous horse-riding scenes for this very reason.