Trivia

This film has had a most curious history. It was intended that it should be directed by the team of Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo, who had attracted attention with their amateur-made film It Happened Here (1964), which got cinema showings and general acclaim in 1966. But they left the project shortly before filming was due to begin and Andrew Sinclair, who had written the script from his own novel, was abruptly promoted to director. The film was made in the early summer of 1970 and was the opening-night attraction at the "Cinema City" exhibition at London's Round House in October of that year. (This exhibition, financed by the "Sunday Times" newspaper, was a celebration of 75 years of cinema). The film was very poorly received at this time, and plans to give it a cinema release were abruptly canceled. It went unseen in Britain until an isolated TV showing on the BBC five years later. Then it vanished again.

UK distributors Network released the film on DVD in May 2013. This version was promoted as uncut, but a sequence in which Joanna Lumley appeared partially nude has been removed (reportedly, at the actor's insistence).

Andrew Sinclair's original novel was set at the time of the Suez Crisis (1956). The film updated the story to the era of Swinging London - one of the many things about the movie that the few people who ever saw it regarded as disastrous.

Only one film prints had been made when when, after poor reviews, the distributors canceled the release. The print became lost over time (although apparently the BBC obtained it as the film supposedly had a TV showing in the mid 1970s). It is assumed the film print disappeared and was forgotten about some time in the 1980s. The mislabeled 35mm print was rediscovered around 2009.

Tony Richardson and John Osborne originally tried to set up " The Breaking of Bumbo " with Peter O'Toole starring.