The production’s star hierarchy became visible in a very concrete way during filming. According to Sylvia Kristel’s memoir, Alain Delon objected to the size of his trailer and demanded the larger trailer assigned to director David Lowell Rich. When Rich complained to producer Jennings Lang, Lang sided with Delon, effectively requiring the director to surrender his own space to the internationally famous French actor. The episode reflected the extraordinary leverage major stars could exercise on a large studio production, even when their demands directly displaced a filmmaker.
Kristel also wrote that tensions worsened toward the end of the shoot. She alleged that Rich became overtly misogynistic toward her, shouting at her and making her repeat lines without an apparent reason. These claims come from Kristel’s memoir rather than from an independently documented production investigation, so the precise circumstances remain difficult to verify. They nevertheless offer a rare firsthand account of the atmosphere behind a film already notorious for its inflated disaster spectacle and clashing personalities.
