This movie went massively overbudget and caused such a major cash crisis that Columbia Pictures nearly went out of business, until a fund of German dentists, Cinerenta, agreed to help co-finance the studio's other movies.
After disastrous previews, Columbia Pictures heavily cut the movie down. Director Mark Rydell claimed most of the jokes were the main victims.
The movie re-used some of the exteriors that were built on the 20th Century Fox lot for 'Hello Dolly!' (1969). Some of the New York City scenes were filmed on the 'Hello, Dolly!' (1969) set that was still standing on the Twentieth Century Fox back-lot.
Adam Worth was a real person and one of the most notorious criminals of the nineteenth century. It has been suggested that he may have been the inspiration for the character of "Professor Moriarty" in the Sherlock Holmes stories.
The only screen appearance by Carmine Coppola not in a film directed by his son Francis Ford Coppola.