The film caused huge controversy in the UK after it was passed with an uncut "A" rating on account of the violence and rape implied in the story, leading to critic Dilys Powell stating that the film be "branded with a 'D' certificate for disgusting". This led to various councils banning the film completely and politicians demanding an investigation into the running of the BBFC. Censor Sir Sidney Harris was forced to issue an apology for having "failed to protect the public".
Linden Travers played Miss Blandish on the London stage before repeating the part here. She regarded this as her favorite role.
When the film was first shown on British television in the early 1960s, the critic Maurice Wiggin summed it up pithily by saying that "this was not the bottom of the barrel, it was the ground underneath."