The film holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations without a nomination for Best Picture: 9.
According to an interview with star Michael Sarrazin, this film was shown to the public in Russia as a piece of anti-American propaganda on the evils of capitalism.
Sydney Pollack shot some of the frightening derby sequences himself, donning a pair of roller skates to get right in the action with the frantically heel/toe-ing actors.
Screenwriter James Poe planned to make his directing debut with this film, seeing it as a low-budget movie without stars. He had planned to use Shirley Knight as Gloria, Lionel Stander as Rocky, Allen Jenkins as Sailor, and his own wife Barbara Steele in another role. The deal fell through, the film became much more expensive, Poe's script was rewritten (and, he claimed, softened), and stars were cast in the leading roles-some of them former clients of ex-agent Martin Baum, who was involved in producing the film.