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.
Dirk Bogarde turned down the lead role.
According to Martin Gottfried in his biography of Angela Lansbury, "Balancing Act", she dubbed Ingrid Thulin's voice as a favor to her husband Peter Shaw, then an executive at MGM.
Despite heavy promotion by MGM, this film was a critical and financial failure, most critics comparing it unfairly with Rex Ingram's 1921 silent classic, and Glenn Ford's Julio with that of Rudolph Valentino. Re-appraisals over the years have been rather more kind, and the film is now seen in a better light.
Parts of André Previn's score were used on the original trailers for Doctor Zhivago the film itself being scored by Maurice Jarre.