The presence of Philip G. Epstein in the writing credits indicates that this film had been a project long in the works in Hollywood - Epstein had died six years before the film appeared. Director Richard Brooks had wanted to make the film in Russia, something quite impossible, of course, in the darkest days of the Cold War. MGM had insisted very firmly that the film made at their studios in Culver City, and several familiar standing sets from other MGM films appear in the movie. It was a box-office and critical failure, although it has gained in reputation somewhat over the years.
This film is supposedly one of the reasons Marilyn Monroe left Fox, because she wanted to star in something serious. They lured her back to the studio with Arrêt d'autobus (1956).
1950's blonde bombshell Gloria Pall has a small part in the beginning of the movie playing a peasant girl being held down on the couch as Fyodor Karamazov tickles her feet with a feather. She was cast after an audition that consisted entirely of being tickled on her feet by an assistant. She beat out 11 other actresses who were tested the same way because she was the most ticklish.
Although Lee J. Cobb and Yul Brynner play father and son, respectively, Cobb was in fact only 9 years older than Brynner.