The Marseilles and New York harbor sequences were filmed in Southampton, UK. The presence of the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner there was a lucky coincidence.
The New York invasion sequence was filmed in Manhattan on a Sunday morning, accounting for the city's empty streets.
Peter Sellers made this film in part as a means of emulating his hero, Alec Guinness, by playing multiple roles in one movie.
Among the musical quotations used in the film were excerpts from Felix Mendelssohn's "Hebrides Overture" and a number of American marches, including a number of passages from "Our Director".