This film was the first movie ever shown on HBO when the service premiered in 1972.
Just before its release, there was a love scene between Michael Sarrazin and Lee Remick that was cut. This scene supposedly included nudity. In the final cut, their affair is only insinuated.
Paul Newman broke his ankle rehearsing the "grab-ass motorcycle race" sequence and filming had to be postponed for a few weeks.
The title comes from lines in the folk song "Goodnight, Irene": "Sometimes I take a great notion / To jump in the river and drown."