Lana Turner later recalled that the studio offered her a choice between this film and Mogambo (1953). She wrote, "The 'Mogambo' script didn't appeal to me, and I elected to do 'Flame and the Flesh'. A big mistake!" The role in "Mogambo" eventually went to Ava Gardner.
Along with Remains to Be Seen (1953), The Subterraneans (1960) and Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968), this is one of very few films from the mid-century MGM library that appears to be lost, outside of privately circulated, poorly reproduced bootleg copies.
In one nightclub scene, patrons--including Lana Turner and Carlos Thompson, dance to the tune, "On The Atchison, Topeka, And The Santa Fe," from the 1946 MGM musical The Harvey Girls (1946).
Auguste Bailly's novel was previously filmed twice in France, under the title Naples au baiser de feu (1925) with Gaston Modot and Gina Manès and as Naples Under the Kiss of Fire (1937) with Tino Rossi and Mireille Balin.
During filming, Bonar Colleano was involved in a serious car crash which greatly damaged his face. However, plastic surgeons were able to reconstruct his face exactly as it had been. Another serious car crash, some five years later, caused Colleano's premature death.