According to King Vidor, director Josef von Sternberg was hired only as a lighting expert by David O. Selznick in order to give his wife--and the film's star--Jennifer Jones a more glamorous look.
David O. Selznick's constant rewrites of completed scenes and insistence on reshoots caused director King Vidor to quit and be replaced by William Dieterle, although Vidor and Selznick remained friends.
David O. Selznick reportedly spent $2 million, an unheard of sum in 1946, on the promotion of this film.
Bulgarian makeup guru Robert Stephanoff fed some hair-raising production details to a newspaperwoman - about risking his life on location in Arizona in order to repeatedly retouch Jennifer Jones' makeup. Perched on a narrow mountainous ledge, there wasn't enough room for Jones, the camera crew, and Stephanoff. "So they hitched a rope around my waist and let me swing over the precipice out of camera range," Stephanoff said. "Each time a scene was shot, they pulled me in with a grappling hook, and I restored Jennifer's makeup and swung out again." [Source: Patricia Clary, United Press, The El Reno (Oklahoma) Daily Tribune, May 12, 1946]