[8] The novel was set in locations in New York City and was about a husband and wife investigating a possible murder of a woman about whose existence they are unsure.

[10] Anthony Boucher of The New York Times wrote that "unlike almost all other film adaptations, it's a highly entertaining book – so light and bright and gay in its wild adventure in southern Spain that you never care whether it makes much sense or not.

Locations included Granada (including Alhambra), Guadix, Ronda (Puente Viejo), Seville (San Telmo Bridge, Plaza de España), El Chorro (Caminito del Rey), Córdoba (Mosque), Madrid, Barcelona, Pamplona, Segovia (aqueduct and alcázar), and Málaga (Cathedral and Castle of Gibralfaro).

"[6] Todd said "we want to make a good picture with laughs, entertainment and thrills – and we hope it will be received with critical approval.

"[14] According to the Los Angeles Times in 1954, Mike Todd Sr. was introduced to the Smell-O-Vision process, which enabled certain odors to be released into a theater during a screening.

[16] In one, wine casks fall off a wagon and roll down a hill, smashing against a wall, at which point a grape scent was released.

Producer Mike Todd, who was a bit of a showman, engaged in such hyperbole, saying, "I hope it's the kind of picture they call a scentsation!"

He also got help from newspaper columnists such as Earl Wilson, who lauded the system, claiming that Smell-O-Vision "can produce anything from skunk to perfume, and remove it instantly."

[21] The film was retitled as Holiday in Spain and re-released, but without the odors, by Cinerama, which needed new products for its specially equipped theaters.

The film was converted into three-strip prints that could be exhibited on the very wide, deeply curved screens in the special theaters.

However, having been converted from Smell-O-Vision, as The Daily Telegraph described it, "the film acquired a baffling, almost surreal quality, since there was no reason why, for example, a loaf of bread should be lifted from the oven and thrust into the camera for what seemed to be an unconscionably long time.

A convenience-store promotion, similar to that for the movie Polyester, offered scratch-and-sniff cards for viewers to recreate the theater experience.

The only information about the scents used in the original production was a list with entries such as "happy odor of baking bread" and "the faint smell of a yellow rose."

Without any perfumers' or chemists' specifications, Wilson-Brown recreated the film's smells from scratch by blending possible aroma ingredients.

According to Hy Hollinger of Variety, aromas were released with a distracting hissing noise, and audience members in the balcony complained that the scents reached them several seconds after the action was shown on the screen.

[24] In other parts of the theater, the odors were too faint, causing audience members to sniff loudly in an attempt to catch the scents.

She wrote, "The producers realized they could save a fortune if they air-conditioned the scents in rather than install the elegant, costly little units in front of each theatre seat.

Todd later said that his press agent Bill Doll "had an idea that would have saved the damned thing if we'd thought of it before the film opened.

"[24] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: As theatrical exhibitionism, it is gaudy, sprawling and full of sound.

But as an attempt at a considerable motion picture it has to be classified as bunk...It is an artless, loose-jointed "chase" picture...Whatever novel stimulation it might afford with the projection of smells appears to be dubious and dependent upon the noses of the individual viewers and the smell-projector's whims...Indistinct is the right word for the whole silly plot of the film and the casual, confused performance of it, which is virtually amateur.

[27]The Los Angeles Times called the film "good family entertainment and while it is doubtful whether the smellies are here to stay you'll find this one worth a look...and smell.

Peter Lorre makes an affable appearance as the meter-conscious, cowardly-but-game taxi-driver; otherwise the film is mainly an excuse to use the large screen for travelogue views around Spain – which are spectacular enough if you like that sort of thing.