 Rosenberg had come across Donn Pearce's chain gang novel and developed the film with actor Jack Lemmon's production company, Jalem.Years later, Rosenberg would replace Bob Rafelson on another prison movie, "Brubaker" (1980) starring Robert Redford.Other Rosenberg films include "The April Fools" (1969), with French actress Catherine Deneuve in her American debut opposite Jack Lemmon (who plays the first Rosenberg lead character named H. Brubaker); the Newman movies "WUSA" (1970), "Pocket Money" (1972) and "The Drowning Pool" (1975); the Walter Matthau police-detective thriller "The Laughing Policeman" (1973); the Charles Bronson action picture "Love and Bullets" (1979); and another action movie "Let's Get Harry" (1986), for which Rosenberg used the Directors Guild of America pseudonym Alan Smithee.