The role of Ruth was intended for Susan Strasberg - who was tested for the part - but the studio decided to cast Elana Eden after they saw her screen test for O Diário de Anne Frank (1959) and were stunned by her beauty and talent. However, she made only one subsequent movie, a B-picture some five years later.
Victor Buono's first film. He went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for O que Terá Acontecido a Baby Jane? (1962). In this film, he played the Moabite priest who notices the blemish on Ruth's arm and scolds the High Priestess.
This subject had been mooted as a Hollywood film for some years. Howard Hawks - rather surprisingly - had announced a biblical film to be called "The Song Of Ruth" about half-a-dozen years earlier, with Audrey Hepburn in the lead. But he made "Land Of The Pharaohs" instead.