This is one of only two films which Bruce Lee did where he spoke with his own natural voice (the other film's Enter the Dragon (1973)). This is also the only film in which Lee played a villain.
James Garner and Rita Moreno first met and became great friends on this project. She'd later have a recurring role in Garner's The Rockford Files (1974).
Per her interview on the Television Foundation, recorded in 2000, Moreno says that she had known Garner 45 years as he did his first screen test with Moreno at 20th Century Fox in 1955.
Per her interview on the Television Foundation, recorded in 2000, Moreno says that she had known Garner 45 years as he did his first screen test with Moreno at 20th Century Fox in 1955.
In the nightclub, Marlowe (James Garner) takes a sip of wine and, smirking, judges it to be; "impertinent. . .even baroque." These were the exact words which a character in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge (published a year earlier) had used to describe Garner's butt in an excerpt from an obtuse film journal which appeared in the novel. Obviously, an inside joke and from Garner's smarmy delivery of what was otherwise a pointless remark, he was very much in on the gag.
The phone number seen in the opening scene in the hotel, 555-2368, is the same number seen on Jim Rockford's phone in the opening credits off The Rockford Files (1974).
Bruce Lee also had a sideline career as a trainer, instructing Hollywood figures in martial arts. Amongst those were the film's writer, Stirling Silliphant and lead actor, James Garner.