This film, its sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon and Calamity Jane are among Doris Day's personal favorites of her own films. Interestingly, in all three, she plays tom-boyish characters who blossom into "might perty" young ladies.
This movie proved to be so popular that the studio immediately green-lit By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) which is a direct sequel with all the actors playing the same characters. This was very unusual at the time.
The success of this film helped catapult Doris Day into the Top Ten Box Office Stars list for 1951. She would make the list nine more times, ascending to the #1 position by the early 1960s.
The exterior of the Winfield family's house, built on a Warner soundstage, was later repainted and used as the family home in another film, 1954's Young at Heart, which co-starred Doris Day and Frank Sinatra.
Gordon MacRae's impassioned commencement speech reflects the changing view of the United States to the war in Europe at the time. Armistice in the Great War was still a year away at the time the class enlisted.