The film is a prequel to 1964's The Carpetbaggers, in which Alan Ladd had played a much older version of the character Nevada Smith.
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The movie was produced and directed by Henry Hathaway with Joseph E. Levine as executive producer, from a story and screenplay by John Michael Hayes based on a character from Harold Robbins' 1961 novel The Carpetbaggers.
In the 1965 film The Fortune Cookie, Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) carries a hardcover copy of the novel into his bedroom.