According to an article in the 25 March 1947 edition of Variety, Alfred Hitchcock was slated to direct and Cary Grant was to have the lead in this film.
Last credited film at RKO for production head Dore Schary. After clashing with the studio's new owner, Howard Hughes, Schary left RKO and went to MGM as head of production there.
This film bombed at the box office, resulting in a loss to RKO of $775,000 according to studio records, making it one of the biggest flops of the year.
The picture was filmed in 1948 but not released until 1950, after Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli had both starred in the much higher profile film The Third Man (1949), which had been released the previous year to great acclaim. Howard Hughes, who owned RKO Studios at the time and had shelved the film when it was first completed, decided to try to cash in on its buzz.
When Elaine and Chris are decorating the Christmas tree, they mention John Brown, the abolitionist whose raid on Harper's Ferry, VA in 1859 to begin a slave rebellion has been seen as a key moment leading to the Civil War. Their specific reference, though, is to the 1928 epic poem about the Civil War, "John Brown's Body," by Stephen Vincent Benet, which had won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1929.. Each character quotes from Benet's poem. Benet's own title refers to the Civil War marching song for Union troops that was later adapted by Julia Ward Howe into "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."