In an interview with Starlog Magazine, published in September 1983, Malcolm McDowell said of this movie: "That movie contains some of the best work I've ever done. I managed to pack into a dozen scenes with the whole period of Nazi tyranny in a convincingly evil way." Also, Malcolm McDowell said of this movie in Starlog Magazine, published in July 1995: "I played this real nasty Nazi who was chasing these people across the Pyrenees. We all knew real early on that the movie was not going to be any great work of art and so I was determined to have some fun with it. My attitude was that if I was going to play a Nazi, I was going to take it totally over the top and do it right. I ended up playing the character like a pantomime queen. What I was doing was so far out that James Mason turned to me one day and said, 'That's wonderful dear boy, but are you in our film? You seem to be doing something different from the rest of us'."

James Mason predicted to Kay Lenz that this movie would be a flop at the box-office. He said, "You mark my words. All films that are predominantly in thick snow are a flop at the box-office. Somehow they make an audience feel uncomfortably cold and damp." It turned out he was right, and this movie flopped worldwide.

Uma Thurman said of this movie on 12/10/2003: "When I was young there was one called The Passage (1979). It horrified me. I think Malcolm McDowell chopped off someone's fingers. I never got over it."

Apparently, three different endings were filmed for this movie and then all three endings were actually used for it.

Stanley Kubrick said there were three actors he didn't need to give much direction to, and who knew exactly what to do in their roles, and two are in this movie: Malcolm McDowell from A Clockwork Orange (1971) and James Mason from Lolita (1962) (Peter Sellers was the third).