Actor Ugo Tognazzi refused to speak most of his lines in anything but Italian, which caused no end of problems for director Édouard Molinaro, according to an interview on the Criterion release. He says he was forced to re-write Tognazzi's French dialogue to match his lips speaking in Italian and bring in a French voice actor to re-dub the lines.
When released in 1978, it ranked as the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever in the United States.
The original French play ran for 1800 performances, from 1973 to 1978, at the Theatre du Palais-Royal in Paris. In New York, the movie ran for well over a year at the 68th Street Playhouse Cinema, as well as in cinemas throughout the country, in both urban and rural areas.
The Broadway musical based on this movie opened on Aug 21, 1983 at the Palace Theatre, ran for 1761 performances and won the 1984 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Book and Score.
Title translation: The Cage of Madwomen. Folle means in colloquial French effeminate gay boy or gay man.
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