Directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife actress Sharon Tate was murdered in 1969 by the followers of Charles Manson, who titled their death spree "Helter Skelter" after the 1968 song by The Beatles, one of whose members, John Lennon, would one day live (and in 1980 be murdered) in the Manhattan apartment building called The Dakota--where this movie had been filmed. Curiously enough, Lennon had written "Dear Prudence" for Mia's sister Prudence Farrow after the pair had spent some time with The Beatles in India at a Transcendental Meditation seminar hosted by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (February 1968).

The film seemed to fall victim to a sinister curse. Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK...yet BOTH planes were struck by lightning. While producer Harvey Bernhard was in Rome, lightning just missed him. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA; he was also struck by a car. After Peck canceled another flight, to Israel, the plane he would have chartered crashed...killing all on board. On day one of the shoot, several principal members of the crew survived a head-on car crash. The jinx appeared to persist well into post-production... when special effects artist John Richardson was injured and his girlfriend beheaded in an accident on the set of A Bridge Too Far (1977).