Adaptation Displacement: The movie is based on the Hungarian play Egy, kettő, három by Ferenc Molnár.
Harsher in Hindsight: "It's what makes our system work...everybody owes everybody." This line is a lot less funny after the Sub-Prime Lending Crisis.
Superlative Dubbing: The German-speaking actors also did the German dubs of their own parts. The only dubbed voice in the English version is that of Graf von Droste-Schattenburg, who was dubbed by Sig Rumann with a much deeper and more gravelly voice than that of the actor, Hubert von Meyerinck (who uses his own voice in the German dub).
Unintentional Period Piece: The film literally became a period piece during shooting — when the production started, the Berlin Wall had not been erected yet, and shooting could happen at the Brandenburg Gate. However, as filming continued, and they needed to film a chase between MacNamara and his companions and some East German policemen that continued over the border between East and West Berlin, East Germany very unobligingly decided to put up the Wall. An Opening Narration was added to the film specifying that it takes place in the pre-Wall period.
Vindicated by History: Partly because of the unintentional "too soon" effect foisted on the film by the building of the Berlin Wall, it was a Box Office Bomb on original release. Now it's praised as an effective return to European-style Farce for Billy Wilder after the more sophisticated comedy of Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, as well as for gamely satirizing the Cold War when it still a touchy topic. It was re-released in Europe in 1985, and literally turned into a case of Germans Love David Hasselhoff, as it became a big hit in West Berlin.
