This film spent several days shooting on location at the Harold Lloyd estate. When Mitchum goes to meet Rampling at her place, the two are actually relaxing in Harold Lloyd's opulent office/den. The estate was used in a number of films during that period, including Shampoo (1975) with Warren Beatty, the Schwarzenegger vehicle Commando (1985) and an episode of the TV series Columbo (1971).
The filming of Farewell, My Lovely (1975) was a trip down memory lane for Robert Mitchum. The movie brought him back to the derelict neighborhoods he knew decades prior when he was a poverty stricken teenager. One night, as Mitchum handed money to vagrants on the streets, his actions attracted the attention of an old beat cop on patrol. The officer took a good look at Bob and said, "So you're back."
The gambling boat ''Lido'' of the movie is one of two in Raymond Chandler's source novel. They are based on fact, operating with impunity as gambling joints because they were just outside the jurisdictional 3-mile limit. The California Attorney General at the time tried to extend the limit to 12 miles, but failed because lawyers for the boats' owners objected that the start for measuring a 12 mile limit was not rigorously defined. (A 12-mile limit would effectively shut them down, since a two-way water taxi trip of those lengths would be impractical for an evening's entertainment.) That Attorney General was Earl Warren, later to become well known as the head of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Sylvester Stallone's last film appearance prior to his breakout role in "Rocky".
Jim Thompson: The acclaimed crime fiction writer as Judge Baxter Wilson Grayle. This role was Thompson's only screen performance.
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