Although he had quit film school some years earlier, this film was acceptable for Francis Ford Coppola as his thesis at U.C.L.A. film school in 1966, earning him a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Real-life husband and wife Rip Torn and Geraldine Page play Mr. and Mrs. Chanticleer in the film. Although they had previously appeared together in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), this was the only film where they played a married couple.
The film shows the final portion of old Pennsylvania Station being demolished. Peter Kastner's character roller skates down 7th Avenue, right past the partially demolished 7th Ave. facade while the new Madison Square Garden tower rises in the background.
Francis Ford Coppola was desperate to film on location at the New York Public Library but the library refused because of the scene involving classic pornography locked up in a steel vault. However, Mayor John V. Lindsay was eager to promote the city and prevailed on the Library to change its mind. This is why Lindsay gets a special thanks credit. The vault scene was eventually filmed on a sound stage.
The nightclub has scenes from The Haunted and the Hunted (1963) (also directed by Francis Ford Coppola) projected onto the wall.
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