When Gregory Peck lifted up Ava Gardner, he threw out his knee and production had to close down while he recovered. Unfortunately, all the scenes of his lying down in his sickbed already had been shot.
Ernest Hemingway disliked the film because he thought it cannibalized material from his other work to pad the story. He told friend Ava Gardner that the only things he liked about it were her and the hyena. It has been reported, but not confirmed, that director Henry King mimicked the hyena on the soundtrack.
Although there was some impressive second unit work shot in Kenya, the principal actors shot their African scenes in Hollywood.
The countess has a bohemian lifestyle, whereas Cynthia wants to be a homebody. In real life, Ava Gardner led a bohemian lifestyle while Hildegard Knef (who had endured the rise and fall of the Third Reich and the Soviet occupation) was more reserved.