There are no plot connections between this movie and Les deux brigadiers (1961), except the World War II setting. In this movie Totò plays a real colonel of the Italian army, in the other one he was a fake marshall.
Totò was an admirer of Walter Pidgeon since his performance in Madame Miniver (1942). Despite Totò not speaking English and Walter Pidgeon not speaking Italian, they got along very well.
Although being set in Greece, the movie was filmed in Italy, in the village of Civita di Bagnoregio, near Viterbo.
Roland Bartrop (Major Kruger) already starred in the almost identical role of Lt. Kessler in Les deux brigadiers (1961). Although playing often the role of a German officer, he was British.