The film was based on an original script by
Alan Sharp who called it "an attempt to use the melodramatic crime chase to deal with whatever the hero's preoccupations might be." In July 1970,
MGM-British announced they would be making a production and distribution deal with
EMI creating a new company,
MGM-EMI, and would produce four films:
The Go-Between,
The Boyfriend,
Get Carter and
The Last Run. By that stage the film was going to be directed by
John Boorman. Boorman eventually left the project because he was unhappy with the script.
George C. Scott agreed to play the lead role Harry Garmes. He was at the height of his career due to the success of
Patton and did
The Last Run because "for the longest time I've been looking for a
Bogart-like meaty part. I haven't found it til now." Scott called the movie "an old fashioned adventure picture. It's kind of a Bogart part - the lonely, separated man trying to make a comeback. It's the sort of thing that people can enjoy."
John Huston In November 1970,
MGM head of production
Herbert F. Solow announced the film would be made as part of a ten picture slate from the studio over the next six months - the other films were
The Wild Rovers, ''
Fortune and Men's Eyes, Shaft, Sextette (ultimately not made for some years), Travels with My Aunt, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, Bullet Proof
and The Gazebo. By now the director of The Last Run
was John Huston. He and Scott previously worked together on The List of Adrian Messenger and The Bible: In the Beginning...''. Huston later said "I didn't like the script that was given to me" but he still agreed to make it. "I should never have got into it." His cinematographer was
Sven Nykvist, who regularly collaborated with
Ingmar Bergman and was making his first American movie. Nykvist later recalled he felt "very insecure" during the shoot "because, instead of the 18 technicians I was used to working with, I had about 100. I saw that everyone was sitting around most of the time. Someone told me that I was the man who should make them work, but I couldn't do that because I was so shy. So I talked to myself that evening and I said: "You have to remember what Ingmar said when we started our first picture-the only thing that's important is what shows on the screen. " Key roles were given to
Tina Aumont and
Tony Musante. Filming began January 3, 1971. Scott and Huston had fights on the set, in part because Huston and his son
Tony Huston were rewriting the script constantly. Matters were complicated by Scott's drinking. His wife
Colleen Dewhurst flew out to the location with his two children Alexander and
Campbell Scott; Dewhurst wound up playing
heart-of-gold-hooker Monique who has a small but important scene with Harry (Scott) in the first act. Alan Sharp later said he rewrote the script six times. "I'm not one of those guys who feels 'It's my masterpiece, no one must touch it'," he said. "If they want to make changes let them make changes. In the final analysis, it's got to be their picture anyway. What gets me is when they come to me and say 'I don't know what it is I want but that isn't it. Give me something else'." Littman called
Richard Fleischer, who had just finished directing
Mia Farrow in
See No Evil. Fleischer turned down the job, disliking the script. He was persuaded to visit the unit, where he met with the producer, star and writer. He got Sharp to tell him the story they were making, and said that was not the story in the script. Fleischer read the original draft and felt "all the important parts" had been cut out. ==Release==