Francis Ford Coppola was such a big fan of this film that he hired its composer, Nino Rota, to score his 1972 masterwork, The Godfather.
Despite the censorship problems - or perhaps because of them - the film was a big commercial success in its native Italy.
Filming was highly problematic, as Luchino Visconti found himself continually denied promised permits, and was forced to shoot in unsuitable locations. To add insult to injury, he was forced to make some deep cuts to his finished film.
Frenchman Alain Delon was dubbed.
Milan's council withdrew permission to stage a murder scene in a popular tourist spot. They subsequently banned the film despite even after 45 minutes of questionable material had been removed.
Most of the dialogue is overdubbed by other actors than the ones seen on screen. This is very apparent if you watch carefully at the lip sync, which can deviate wildly from the actual dialogue. The voice actors are all uncredited in the actual film.
The 13 onscreen stabbings in the European cut of the film were whittled down to just 3 for the American version.
When it was first released in the US in 1961, about half an hour of footage was cut out as it was deemed to be too violent for American audiences.