ट्रिविया

Louis Gossett Jr., on working with director George Cukor on this movie: "The consummate director and a filmmaking genius. He kept shooting until he got it right. He knew when to say something to you, and he knew when to leave you alone. He was always one step ahead of everyone."

Source novel author Graham Greene had a copy of the script smuggled to him and thought it "horrifyingly bad". He later began watching the movie on TV at a friend's house, but got no further than the opening funeral scene: "I thought it was so awful - the over-acting of Maggie Smith, in particular - that we turned it off after about four minutes".

Katharine Hepburn was initially approached by her friend, director George Cukor, to star in this movie. She read the book by Graham Greene, but since it was a series of short stories, she didn't think it could be adapted into a movie. However, she agreed to star in it after reading the book a few times. Jay Presson Allen wrote the screenplay, but when Hepburn was unhappy with the result, Allen suggested that she re-write it. Hepburn worked on the script for three months, but when she submitted it, MGM studio head James T. Aubrey felt that her script was missing the charm of the book. Also, Aubrey felt that Hepburn was too old to play Aunt Augusta in flashback scenes. Aubrey called Hepburn to tell her that the project had been postponed, but the next day, Hepburn's agent called to report that she had been released by MGM for "failing to report to work." Hepburn considered suing MGM for payment for her script work, but decided against it. According to Jay Presson Allen, one speech from Hepburn's script was included in this movie, but Hepburn was not given screen credit, because she wasn't a member of the Screen Writer's Guild.

Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens were married in real life when the film was shot (although they broke up very shortly afterwards). Their sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens are also actors.

Maggie Smith portrays Aunt Augusta from ages about 17 to about 70. The actress was about 38 during filming.