Aldo Sambrell's film debut.
Carmen Sevilla's voice was dubbed by an uncredited actress (her real voice can be heard in Spanish Affair).
Richard Burton was originally offered the part of Jesus.
Hurd Hatfield (Pontius Pilate) and Viveca Lindfors (Claudia) had appeared together in the original Broadway stage production of "Anastasia". Lindfors played Anna Anderson and Hatfield played Prince Paul.
Hurd Hatfield was only cast as Pontius Pilate after a number of British heavyweights had passed on the part.
Ray Bradbury wrote the narration, but was uncredited.
Jeffrey Hunter was jokingly referred to as "I Was a Teenage Jesus" for his youthful appearance. In reality, he was 35 years old at the time of filming, much closer to Jesus' real age at the time of the story (33 years) than was usual in previous Hollywood treatments. Movie audiences were accustomed to more mature actors portraying Jesus.
Franz Planer, the original Director of Photography, suffered a heatstroke during principal photography of the Sermon on the Mount sequence in Spain. This became one of his last films and he passed away only a few years later.
Gérard Tichy's voice was dubbed by an uncredited actor.
After its theatrical run, the film was sold directly to local television stations instead of to the "big three" networks. Even now, the film has still not been shown by NBC, ABC, or CBS - only by local affiliates of the three networks and on cable television.
Due to Jeffrey Hunter's youthful, teen-idol appeal, the film was jokingly referred to within the industry as "I Was a Teenage Jesus" - in imitation of the low-budget teen-audience successes I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.
The crucifixion scene had to be re-shot because a preview audience was offended at Jesus having a hairy chest.
The New York premiere of the film was at the Loew's State Theater.
The poster for this film was deliberately meant to resemble the one for Ben-Hur. Both films were MGM releases, though only Ben-Hur was successful at the box office at the time.
The scenes between John the Baptist, Herod, Herodias, and Salome are supposedly based more on Oscar Wilde's play "Salome", than on the Bible, though Salome's grisly behavior as depicted by Wilde is not shown.
The voice of Luis Prendes, who plays the Good Thief crucified alongside Jesus, was dubbed by another actor.
This film's narrator, Orson Welles, would later narrate a portion of another Biblical work, The New Media Bible: Book of Genesis. Before narrating this Biblical epic about the King of kings, Welles had earlier portrayed a king himself in another Biblical epic, David e Golia. Welles would even portray a director directing a Biblical epic in Ro.Go.Pa.G., when he ironically had earlier directed himself in his own scenes in "David e Golia".