Trivia: In the scene where Doctor Spivey is interviewing McMurphy, this whole scene is improvised. Spivey (Dr. Dean Brooks) is the ACTUAL doctor of the institute in real life, and was simply told to interview Jack Nicholson (McMurphy) as if he was a real patient. Nicholson had to improvise and get from the beginning of the scene to the end.
Trivia: What was Mr Mason's first name?
Trivia: Ken Russell wanted Christopher Lee to play The Specialist. However, Lee was unavailable, filming The Man With the Golden Gun in Bangkok. Russell eventually cast Jack Nicholson.
Trivia: Stanley Kubrick's daughter has a cameo as the young girl sitting behind Lady Lyndon at the magic show.
Trivia: The Hindenburg explosion and fire towards the end of the movie combines filmed footage with actual newsreel footage of the disaster.
Trivia: Lina Wertmuller became the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director with this film.
Trivia: By open admission of one of the original artwork designer Akira "Akiman" Yasuda, the movie (known in Japan as "The Street Fighter") inspired at least 2 of the most iconic backgrounds of the game Street Fighter 2: it is really obvious when you watch the fight between Jim Henry and "the kid", on the docks with a boat in the background much like in Ken 's stage. The cage fight against Henry inspired also Zangief's stage. (00:19:30 - 00:47:50)
Trivia: Science-fiction author Harlan Ellison wrote the original novella "A Boy and His Dog" in 1969, and director L.Q. Jones wanted Ellison to also write the screenplay for this 1975 film. When it became apparent that Ellison could not provide a screenplay (due to "writer's block"), Jones co-wrote the screenplay. In a DVD commentary decades later, Jones said that Ellison was pleased with the finished screenplay and movie except for certain dialogue. Ellison was especially offended by the last line of the movie, spoken by the telepathic dog, Blood: "Well, I'd say she certainly had marvelous judgment, Albert, if not particularly good taste." (This grisly line alluded to Vic and Blood eating Quilla June Holmes, the female love interest, in an act that happens off-camera.) Harlan Ellison said it was a "moronic, hateful, chauvinist last line, which I despise."
Trivia: Production of this movie was not easy for John Wayne. The actor was suffering from heart problems and had only just recovered from a severe bout of pneumonia.