Deanna Durbin had been MGM's first choice for the role of Lilli Vanessi, but despite a visit by producer Jack Cummings to Deanna's home near Paris, she could not be persuaded to emerge from retirement. Miss Durbin already had rejected the chance to portray Lili in London's West End, where the British production played 400 performances at the Coliseum Theatre, running from March 8, 1951 until February 23, 1952. Patricia Morison, Broadway's original Lilli, re-created the part in London.
Howard Keel maintained that he was not the first choice for the film, and that the studio wanted Laurence Olivier or Danny Kaye.
Chorographer Hermes Pan makes an appearance as a sailor in the number "Always True to You in My Fashion."
Even though Hermes Pan is the credited choreographer on the film, the steamy duet between Bob Fosse and Carol Haney in "From This Moment On" (which includes Fosse doing a complete back-flip) was choreographed by Fosse himself, and lasts only 66 seconds. But it is the sequence that made critics take notice of the future award-winning choreographer and director.
For the famous spanking scene, Kathryn Grayson and costume designer Helen Rose played a joke on Howard Keel - Rose put a wooden board under Grayson's costume.
On the original soundtrack album, the "overture" is actually the Entr'acte music from Act Two. The real overture was taken from another album and added to the CD (track #19).
Originally filmed in 3D which is why the actors often throw things (including themselves) at the audience.
Several of the Broadway lyrics were considered too "spicy" for a film. For instance, "according to the Kinsey Report" (Alfred Kinsey) was changed to "according to the weather report" in the song, "Too Darn Hot", and a verse containing bawdy puns was omitted from "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" (William Shakespeare).
The movie was shot full frame (1.33:1, including soundtrack area) and then printed with optical soundtrack and interlocked with a magnetic, full-coated strip of film in the theater. While shot on Ansocolor film stock, the prints were by Technicolor, who optically centered the picture to fit the soundtrack on the film (unfortunately, new prints do not have this advantage and the left portion of the picture is cut off prematurely). According to trade ads, the film was only shot in 3-D and except for the premiere (at Radio City), played at almost all major theaters across the USA in 3-D. According to the director in a 1953 interview, the aspect ratio was intended to be 1.75:1, although it was protected for almost every ratio, due to the ever-changing standards of flat widescreen at the time.
The original Broadway production of "Kiss Me Kate" opened at the New Century Theater on December 30, 1948, ran for 1077 performances and won the 1954 Tony Awards for the Best Musical, Book and Score.
The original stage show was based upon the backstage bickering of the illustrious married stage couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during their 1935 Broadway production of "Taming of the Shrew."
This was Ann Miller's favorite role. It was expanded for the film: on stage, Lois does not sing "Too Darn Hot" which is sung by Paul's dresser, who is an African-American.