Actress Goldie Hawn has said of this movie: "It smelled like a hit. Warren [Beatty] and I in Germany, plotting a robbery from a bank, with me as a hooker. Richard Brooks directing. But it didn't work." Moreover, Hawn has also said of her characterization in this film: "It was a total bust," she said. "I didn't like my character or what I did with her. It was a totally unthought [sic] out, unconscious performance. I can't even look at the picture."
Star Goldie Hawn has admitted she's never seen this movie all the way through. Perhaps too busy working at the time to attend its premiere, she finally caught up with $ (1971) when it played on television. But she says it exhausted her patience and she shut it off at the half-way mark.
Gert Fröbe appears in this movie in a minor role as a bank manager. It is also one of his very few English-language roles without voice-over dubbing for his own voice. His character and casting is designed to connect with his screen persona from the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). As Auric Goldfinger in that movie, he was a villain who loved gold, had it as part of his personal artifacts and his scheme was to rob it from Fort Knox. In this movie, as Mr. Kessel, he is seen handling gold bars and his bank is the film's equivalent to Fort Knox.
The film's $ (1971) title is pronounced "Dollars" which was the film's subtitle in parentheses on American movie posters. The picture is also known in some territories as "The Heist."
Goldie Hawn arrived in Hamburg with her husband, Gus Trikonis, and her dog, Lamb Chop, several days before the start of filming. Hawn had taken a crash course in German at Berlitz and captivated Hamburg residents with her ability to express herself in their tongue. Miss Hawn, Academy Award winner with her debut performance in Cactus Flower (1969), also produced by this film's producer M.J. Frankovich, was able to order her meals and do her shopping in the leading stores and to converse with hotel employees and reporters in German.