Although playing brothers, Spencer Tracy was thirty years older than Robert Wagner in real life. Tracy played Wagner's father in La lance brisée (1954).
The film was based on the 1952 novel "La neige en deuil" written by Henri Troyat. The novel itself was inspired by the Air India Flight 245 crash into Mont-Blanc, France, on November 3, 1950. The flight, a Lockheed L-749A Constellation Malabar Princess, carried forty passengers and eight crew on the Bombay-Cairo-Geneva-London route. It hit the face of the Rochers De la Tournette 4,677 meters (15,344 feet) on the French side of Mont Blanc, killing all on board. In 1966, Air India Flight 101 crashed in the same approximate area. In 2013, a climber found a cache of jewelry that is speculated to have been aboard one of these two flights.
Spencer Tracy was on the wagon (had stopped drinking) when he consented to do the film with friend Robert Wagner. On the way up to the resort where they were staying, their cable car malfunctioned, and they were stuck in the life-threatening situation for some time. That evening, the experience caused him to drink heavily and lose his temper. He threw a glass at the bartender. The glass didn't hit the man but shattered, and pieces of it cut Wagner's hand, which can be seen in the movie.
It's been felt by many that Tracy and Wagner should've played father and son, instead of brothers. Though men are known to father children (from different wives) decades apart, the film gives no mention/indication that they are half-brothers or anything.
Charlton Heston was originally intended for the part of Chris Teller.
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