diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 8911b5cb..adcae02a 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 - [pull #720] Add `wiki-links` extra for `[[Page Name]]` style links (#221)
 - [pull #722] Harden URL safety checks and sanitization in safe mode (#721)
 - [pull #728] Fix XSS from zero-padded colon entities in link URLs (#726)
+- [pull #735] Fix `smarty-pants` extra converting quotes inside inline HTML tags and comments (#150)
 
 
 ## python-markdown2 2.5.5
diff --git a/lib/markdown2.py b/lib/markdown2.py
index b3c29847..db497f5b 100755
--- a/lib/markdown2.py
+++ b/lib/markdown2.py
@@ -4167,6 +4167,18 @@ def run(self, text: str):
         <http://code.google.com/p/python-markdown2/issues/detail?id=42> for a
         discussion of some diversion from the original SmartyPants.
         """
+        # Swap out inline HTML tags and comments so their attribute quotes
+        # and `--` are left alone (#150). The placeholders are non-space, so
+        # the quote rules see the same context around them as before.
+        tags = {}
+
+        def hash_tag(match: re.Match[str]) -> str:
+            key = _hash_text(match.group(0))
+            tags[key] = match.group(0)
+            return key
+
+        text = self.md._sorta_html_tokenize_re.sub(hash_tag, text)
+
         if "'" in text:  # guard for perf
             text = self.contractions(text)
             text = self._opening_single_quote_re.sub("&#8216;", text)
@@ -4182,11 +4194,8 @@ def run(self, text: str):
         text = text.replace(" . . . ", "&#8230;")
         text = text.replace(". . .", "&#8230;")
 
-        # TODO: Temporary hack to fix https://github.com/trentm/python-markdown2/issues/150
-        if "footnotes" in self.md.extras and "footnote-ref" in text:
-            # Quotes in the footnote back ref get converted to "smart" quotes
-            # Change them back here to ensure they work.
-            text = text.replace('class="footnote-ref&#8221;', 'class="footnote-ref"')
+        for key, tag in tags.items():
+            text = text.replace(key, tag)
 
         return text
 
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.html b/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cbc7a06d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.html
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+<p>An inline image <img src="/path/to/img.png" alt="Alt Text"> keeps its attributes.</p>
+
+<p>A raw <a href="https://example.com/" title='Example'>link</a> and <span class="note">a &#8220;quoted&#8221; word</span>.</p>
+
+<p>An inline <!-- HTML -- comment --> is left alone, but &#8220;quotes&#8221; and dashes &#8211; outside it still change.</p>
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.opts b/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.opts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d0390c68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.opts
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"extras": ["smarty-pants"]}
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.text b/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.text
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..af3417f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/smarty_pants_html_attributes_issue150.text
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+An inline image <img src="/path/to/img.png" alt="Alt Text"> keeps its attributes.
+
+A raw <a href="https://example.com/" title='Example'>link</a> and <span class="note">a "quoted" word</span>.
+
+An inline <!-- HTML -- comment --> is left alone, but "quotes" and dashes -- outside it still change.