Richard Burton's posthumously-published diaries reveal that he accepted the role of Philip in this film because it was being planned as a comeback vehicle for Greta Garbo under the direction of his friend George Cukor, whom he regarded as one of the great Hollywood directors. He claims that Garbo personally told him she would only do the film with him as her leading man. After negotiations with both Garbo and Cukor fell through (Garbo never made another film, and Cukor was replaced by Henry Koster and he and Burton never worked together), Burton remained attached to the project, which was re-fashioned as a vehicle for Olivia de Havilland. Burton claims that de Havilland was impossibly arrogant following her recent Oscar win for L'héritière (1949), insisted on having sole above-the-title billing, and would not allow anyone to address her by her first name, only by "Miss de Havilland". He found this state of affairs preposterous and was rude about her for the rest of his life whenever the film (which he also disliked) came up in interviews.
Although he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this film, Richard Burton's total screen-time is longer than in any of his six nominations for Best Actor.
The original director George Cukor had offered the title role to Vivien Leigh who accepted on condition the film be made in England. 20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck would not approve a shoot outside of Hollywood.
Richard Burton was generally felt to be miscast as he looked too old and mature for the naive character he played, although he was in fact only 26 when the film was made.