The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing

Sarah Miles' found her business manager/boyfriend David Whiting dead in her Gila Bend, AZ, motel room during the film's location shooting. The death made headlines around the world. "Time Magazine" on 26 March 1973 reported, "Pills and bottles were scattered around his body, and bruises and a bloody cut were found on his head". The night prior to the discovery of his body Whiting had allegedly assaulted Miles after she had come back late at night from a birthday party for Burt Reynolds. Reynolds let Miles stay in his room for protection. She testified that Whiting had "got ahold of me and began throwing me about the room". Reynolds, when he saw Miles after her nanny, who had overheard the confrontation, had called him, was quoted as saying, "Christ Almighty, you're a mess!" Miles' injuries allegedly included a bloody nose, a bruised forehead and a cut lip. The official cause of Whiting's death as ruled by the coroner/county medical examiner was suicide by overdose of the drugs Methaqualone, Benadryl and a Librium-type drug. Reportedly, Miles and Reynolds did not wish to testify at the inquest one month after the incident but were forced to when Whiting's mother, Mrs. Louise Campbell, successfully obtained a court order compelling them to testify. According to the "Time" article, " . . . a pharmacologist hired by Whiting's mother said that the amount of methaqualone in Whiting's bloodstream need not have been fatal. Left unexplained was how Whiting's blood came to be on a pillowcase, towel, tissues and the washbasin in his own room, as well as on a blue sweater he had apparently been wearing. Also unaccounted for were the severe cut on the back of his head and scratches on his stomach, chest and knuckles." It was later revealed that Miles and Whiting had been having an affair, and this, together with the resulting publicity, contributed to the disintegration of her marriage to Robert Bolt.

John Wayne expressed an interest in the script, but MGM felt he was too expensive and too old.

Michel Legrand was originally hired to compose the musical score. He composed his score in Paris in May 1973 and recorded a little over 20 minutes of it in Hollywood the following month, but director Richard C. Sarafian and studio executives James Aubrey and Daniel Melnick informed him that his score was not what they felt the film needed, and dismissed him.

The source novel of the same name by Marilyn Durham was first published in 1972. One reason the movie came out so quickly after the publication of the novel was because scriptwriter Eleanor Perry was able to read the novel pre-release in galley form. Perry took the property to producer Martin Poll, who bought the film rights in January 1972. Perry wrote the original script for the movie and also received a producer credit.

In December 1972 screenwriter William W. Norton was contracted to re-write Eleanor Perry's script. His work is uncredited. His filing of a grievance with the Writers Guild of America for the inclusion of a screen credit apparently failed due to a delay in the filing of his complaint.