Real-life Influences
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- The plot is based on the real-life Sapphire Affair of 1962.
- The film begins with a Russian KGB agent defecting along with his wife and daughter. It was based on that of Anatoliy Golitsyn.
- André Devereaux was based on French agent Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli of the SDECE.
- "Juanita de Cordoba" is loosely based on Castro's sister Juanita Castro who defected to the U.S.
- The red haired army captain known as "Hernandez" is based on Manuel Piñeiro.
- Fidel Castro makes an uncredited appearance in the film along with Che Guevara. While in Cuba, Deveraux attends a Castro rally in order to keep up the appearance of his official cover, that of a French trade attaché. The film spliced in actual footage of a real Castro rally of the era to add to the realism.
- The French title is L'Étau (English : ~bench vice, ~stranglehold), to avoid any reference to Topaze, a well known 1951 French opus by Marcel Pagnol starring Fernandel and Yvette Etiévant. In the French script, the topaz gemstone is replaced by "l'opale" (opal).
Read more about this topic: Topaz (1969 film)
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