In 1971 UCLA film student Alan Howard was working at Columbia Pictures for producer Robert Lovenheim and brought in Give "em What They Want as a possible Columbia release. It went up the chain until it came to the attention of executive consultant Bosley Crowther, recently retired film critic for the New York Times. His negative review was noticeably more forceful than his famous panning of the then newly released Bonnie and Clyde. He found the director's artistically primitive cinematic style to be disgusting and saw not one wit of artistic merit in the film. Columbia thought it over and choose not to release Give "em What They Want.