"the magic christian" ends with a scene in which grand fills a huge vat with offal and excrement and then throws money into the fetid mixture to demonstrate how far people will go to get money for nothing. the original plan was to film the climactic scene at the statue of liberty in new york, and the us national park service agreed to the request. sellers, mcgrath and southern then travelled to new york on the "queen elizabeth 2" (at a reported cost of $10,000 per person) but the studio then refused to pay for the shoot and it had to be relocated to london. the scene was eventually shot on the south bank, near the site of the new national theatre building. the film premiered on february 12, 1970, to lukewarm reviews.