Stars Bette Midler and Ken Wahl made no secret of their open hatred of one another, battling constantly throughout filming. Wahl described to the press how much he disliked kissing Midler.
Director Don Siegel had so many clashes, arguments, and fights with Bette Midler on this movie, that after it was finished, he was quoted as saying, "I'd let my wife, children, and animals starve before I'd subject myself to something like that again."
Don Siegel had been a mentor to Sam Peckinpah twenty-five years earlier, and by the time this film was made, Peckinpah was almost banished from the industry due to his troubled film productions, often involving clashes with producers and studios. Siegel gave him a chance to return to filmmaking. During production of this movie, he asked Peckinpah if he would be interested in directing twelve days of second unit work. Peckinpah immediately accepted, and his earnest collaboration with his longtime friend was noted within the industry. While Peckinpah's work was uncredited, it would lead to his being hired as the director of his final film, The Osterman Weekend (1983).
Although the savage disputes between director Don Siegel and star Bette Midler on this film were widely reported, Siegel curiously made no mention of them in his autobiography, although he devotes a chapter to the making of the movie. His far milder disagreements with Walter Matthau on Charley Varrick (1973) and Susan Clark on Coogan's Bluff (1968) did get detailed mention though.