Acclaimed Flop: While not universally praised, after the much-loathed Prêt-à-Porter, critics generally viewed this film as a solid return-to-form for Robert Altman, but it didn't help it at all at the box office. The Jazz score was especially well-received (apart from a handful of music critics who thought it sounded too much like modern musicians doing Retraux music and didn't sound authentic).
Box Office Bomb: Budget, $19 million. Box office, $1,356,329. The film's meticulous period re-creation bloated its budget. Originally intended for a late 1995 release to build Oscar buzz, it got pushed to late summer 1996, and never got more than a limited release.
The Other Marty: Kim Basinger was cast as Carolyn Stilton, but was dropped because she was pregnant and the film's insurance underwriters refused to cover her. The recasting with Miranda Richardson led to a long delay in filming that had the effect of pushing its originally scheduled December 1995 release down to August of 1996.
Reality Subtext: Robert Altman wasn't in great health when he made the film, having suffered a stroke a few years earlier and then getting diagnosed with advanced heart disease, and he approached this film with the sense that it could well be his last one, which helps explain the Kansas City setting and the nostalgic tone. As it turned out, though, he got a heart transplant shortly after it was finished, and lived for another decade.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: In classic Altman form, he only had a rough outline of the story when the film was greenlighted, forcing him to hurry up to finish a script. Even then, much of the final film was improvised (especially Belafonte's lines as Seldom Seen).
