Observing William, a man of simple tastes who longs to get back home to a quiet retirement in the English countryside, brings about an epiphany for Jack, who is faced with a moral dilemma when asked to help blackmail a prominent US senator.

Cybill Shepherd sued Playboy magazine after they published photos of her from The Last Picture Show.

As part of the settlement, she got the rights to the novel Saint Jack, which she had wanted to make into a film ever since Orson Welles gave her a copy.

The local authorities knew about the book, hence the foreign production crew did not tell them that they were adapting it, fearing that they would not be permitted to shoot the film.

[4] Australian actor George Lazenby, best known for playing James Bond, was cast in a key support role.

[2] In an interview with The New York Times on 15 March 2006, Bogdanovich said: "Saint Jack and They All Laughed were two of my best films but never received the kind of distribution they should have.

"[7] Filmink argued "A trashier version of this story – one directed by, say, Steve Carver... probably would have been more lucrative.

In praise of Gazzara's performance, he writes: "sometimes a character in a movie inhabits his world so freely, so easily, that he creates it for us as well.