Richard Thorpe replaced original director James Hill. At the same time, Lorraine Power replaced Hayley Mills, and George Sanders replaced Lionel Jeffries, although it is unclear whether either Mills or Jeffries ever stepped before the cameras.
The Golden Head received its much belated U.S. premiere on September 8, 2009 at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, where the only surviving print of the film played for one night only as a double feature with Scent of Mystery (the latter under its U.K. title "Holiday in Spain").
Before director James Hill was replaced, Otto Preminger filmed an unbilled cameo as a favor to producer Alexander Paal, who had been a still photographer on Preminger's films Exodus and The Cardinal. Preminger believed his cameo was discarded when Hill's scenes were reshot by replacement director Richard Thorpe.
Production began in three-camera Cinerama but switched to one-camera Super Technirama 70. Some of the three-panel footage was converted to 70mm and appears in the film.