Lead actor Dean Martin had a contract for performing at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas and this apparently included a commitment to star in a picture for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio.
The movie is considered an installment in the new genre of the violent urban cop crime thriller that had broken through with Dirty Harry (1971). Both pictures were set and filmed in San Francisco in California, USA. Bullitt (1968) had also shot there.
The movie shot for about a couple of weeks in San Francisco area locations and on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, California, USA as reported in a news piece published in the 3rd May 1974 issue of show-business trade-paper 'The Hollywood Reporter'. After this leg of principal photography, the production returned to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios in Culver City, California, USA with filming also conducted in its environs in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
The movie was ''banked by the MGM Grand Hotel as a [Dean] Martin contract stipulation'' according to Josiah Howard at the 'The Grindhouse Cinema Database' (GCDb) website.
Final lead starring role in a theatrical feature film of actor Dean Martin. The film's director Paul Bogart previously had directed the final lead starring role in a theatrical feature film of actor Bob Hope in Cancel My Reservation (1972).