Although Jay Ose is credited only with playing the small part of "2nd Fertilizer Man," the Los Angeles Times reported during filming that he was on set to coach George C. Scott in his role as a con artist. Ose, a professional magician and card dealer, is apparently the man whose hands appear in the close-up shots of Mordecai Jones doing particularly elaborate card tricks.
This movie was filmed in Lexington, Kentucky and surrounding small towns, including Richmond, Winchester, and Irvine, Kentucky. The scene which shows the green bridge and A&P store was shot in Irvine, a small Appalachian town in Estill County, Kentucky. Townspeople had never witnessed a movie being made, and many stood excitedly watching the process. Highly acclaimed actor Harry Dean Stanton was born in West Irvine, which is very close in ___location to shots taken for this movie. However, Stanton had long since departed for Hollywood, and had already starred in many classic hit shows and movies by that time.
Due to a prolonged period of inclement weather, Lawrence Turman rented Lexington's G. T. Vaughn tobacco warehouse, which would provide 200,000 square feet of makeshift studio space for nine interior sets.
Carta che vince, carta che perde (1967) was Canadian actor's Michael Sarrazin's first leading role in a major film, though he had appeared in a couple of low-budget films and a TV shows before this film. In this film, he received an 'introducing' credit. He played the character "Curley Treadaway."
In 1965, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. president Richard D. Zanuck had hired Lawrence Turman to produce a screen adaptation of based on the novel "Ballad of the Flim-Flam Man" by Guy Owen for anticipated release in 1966. A few months later, the title had been shortened to "The Flim-Flam Man" prior to production, which was delayed until the following year.