This movie was released five years after its source novel was first published. The novel's original title was "The Hostage". The film is the only theatrical feature based on a story by author Charles Templeton.
The movie marked the re-teaming of two Golden Age of Hollywood MGM studio alumni stars, Ava Gardner and Van Johnson, who had both previously appeared in both 3 Men in White (1944) and Two Girls and a Sailor (1944).
The film's opening sequence features black-and-white archive footage of various former American Presidents in public, and in motorcades, including that of President John F. Kennedy.
Virginia Podesser was cast as the Canadian Prime Minister's wife, because she was said to resemble Margaret Trudeau, the then and now former wife of the fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau. The September 15, 1979 edition of "The Regina Leader-Post" reported that "the likeness has helped her get her first acting job in The Kidnapping of the President (1980)".
The motorcycle escort were actual members of the Ontario Provincial Police.