Richard Jordan later admitted he decided to overplay his part because he thought the movie was going to flop, and if anybody paid to see it then it would only be for the two stars. He also said he felt that Katharine Hepburn was about to die at any minute - ironically, she outlived him by a decade.
Katharine Hepburn was bemused by co-star John Wayne's tendency to argue with everybody, especially the director, during filming. At the party to celebrate the last day of filming she told him, "I'm glad I didn't know you when you had two lungs, you must have been a real bastard. Losing a hip has mellowed me, but you!"
Director Stuart Millar insisted on so many takes that eventually John Wayne snapped, "God damn it Stuart, there's only so many times we can say these awful lines before they stop making any sense at all."
John Wayne found making the film to be very difficult, particularly since he had just finished a grueling shoot on Brannigan (1975) and recovered from pneumonia.