According to Sir Alfred Hitchcock, this was another of his experimental movies. In addition to the dialogue, the plot is revealed through the use of colors, predominantly red, yellow, and white. He admits that this did not work out.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock hired Leon Uris to adapt his own novel. But Uris didn't care for Hitchcock's eccentric sense of humor, nor did he appreciate Hitchcock's habit of monopolizing all of his time as they worked through a script. Hitchcock was disappointed that Uris seemed to ignore his requests to humanize the story's villains. In his opinion, the novel painted them as cardboard monsters. With only a partial draft completed, Uris left the movie.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock shot three versions with completely different endings. All are included in the LaserDisc re-issue.
This movie was Sir Alfred Hitchcock's biggest failure. It cost approximately $4 million to make, and received only $1 million at the box office.