Anecdotes

Based on his athletic dancing in films such as this one and Les Aventures de Tom Pouce (1958), most audiences assume that Russ Tamblyn was a trained dancer. In fact, the actor had no history of dance training. He was a skilled tumbler, and that was originally slated to be his singular contribution to Les sept femmes de Barberousse (1954), but his natural movement ability was so accomplished that he was incorporated more and more into the dance sequences. This would ultimately culminate in his being cast as Riff in West Side Story (1961), one of the most dance-heavy musicals in Broadway history.

The undisputed highlight of this film is the battleship finale reprise of "Hallelujah!", which was featured prominently twenty years later toward the climax of Il était une fois Hollywood (1974). The sequence dazzled audiences not only with its scope and movement but also with Jeff Alexander's intricate vocal arrangements for the soloists and a battalion of men's voices. Astonishingly, this number was not included on the MGM Records soundtrack album from the film, nor was it released commercially until nearly twenty years later on the soundtrack album of That's Entertainment.

The funhouse sequence featuring Debbie Reynolds and Russ Tamblyn lasts four and a half minutes on screen and took three days to film.

A funereal air surrounds this film, as it was made during the final flowering of the MGM musical, at which point the studio was canceling its contracts with nearly all of its legendary contract players. This film marked the final MGM appearances of Jane Powell, Tony Martin, and J. Carrol Naish. Ann Miller would make only two more films for the studio - The Opposite Sex (1956) and The Great American Pastime (1956) - and Vic Damone would make one, L'étranger au paradis (1955). Only Debbie Reynolds and Russ Tamblyn survived the cut; both stars would remain at MGM through the early-1960s.

In "The Lady From the Bayou", Ann Miller's wailing notes at the end of her vocal were dubbed by Kitty White.