Lee J. Cobb played Glenn Ford's grandfather, despite only being five years older than him (Cobb is actually made up to look twenty years older with gray hair and a large gray mustache).
This movie grossed only 1,913,399 dollars and lost the studio 3,662,892 dollars.
According to Martin Gottfried in his biography of Dame Angela Lansbury, "Balancing Act", she dubbed Ingrid Thulin's voice as a favor to her husband Peter Shaw, then an executive at MGM. MGM executives believed Thulin's Swedish accent was too thick and difficult to understand. Lansbury's and Thulin's voices are heard on the soundtrack.
Director Vincente Minnelli did all he could to sign Alain Delon for the role of Julio, but the producers were set on having an American star in the lead. Glenn Ford was a proven box-office star with a working agreement with MGM, so he was hired for one hundred fifty thousand dollars.
Sir Dirk Bogarde turned down the lead role. Alain Delon, Montgomery Clift, Horst Buchholz and George Hamilton were also briefly considered.