There is only one scene in the entire film where Yul Brynner is not seen smoking a cigar. The actor died of cancer some 25 years afterwards and attributed his illness to smoking; his last appearance was in an anti-smoking commercial.
King Pavel refers to an attempt to assassinate him via exploding cigars. The CIA's use of poisoned cigars to try to kill Fidel Castro occurred the same year this film came out, although this was not disclosed until 1975 by the special Senate subcommittee headed by Decomcratic Sen. Frank Church.
Passed by the British Board of Film Censors on 22 July 1960 with a "U" certificate, then premiered in London at the Leicester Square Theatre on 22 September 1960 where it ran three weeks. For the general release at normal prices from 11 November 1960, the distributors selected The Gentle Trap (1960) as the supporting feature.
Whilst filming Yul, Mitzi, and other members of the crew played an improvised game of cricket in the Acropolis Lindos.
Opening credits: The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious, and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional.