It is directed by Peter Ustinov, who stars in the film alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Beau Bridges.

The three make their way into adventures where Hammersmith murders people and steals property as the means for elevating Billy's social and financial status.

Hammersmith arranges for Billy to become disabled in a water skiing accident, and then convinces him to commit suicide.

The head of the psychiatric hospital locates Hammersmith and has him returned to his incarceration – where he begins to promise fame and fortune to another orderly.

"[3] On June 27, 1970, Richard Burton wrote in his diary about the script: It is very wild and formless but just the kind of thing that I would like to do at the moment.

It should be wildly funny and fun to do, especially with somebody as congenial as Ustinov and as brilliant, and might be a big commercial success to boot and spur.

Burton watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and wrote in his diary that he felt Redford was "disappointingly ordinary and Newman is much more impressive.

I think he would have ruined our film simply because he seems so sluggish and certainly doesn't suggest for a second the kind of demonic idiot-ness that Billy Breedlove must have.

[8] Ustinov called it "a variation of the Faust legend" where "the story offers a convenient structure for social comment.