The lead role was offered to Doris Day but she (or her husband Martin Melcher) declined after fearing it would damage her pure-as-the-driven-snow screen image.
At the time, the Motion Picture Production Code prohibited the portrayal of illicit (i.e. premarital) sex as harmless or positive. For the film to be approved under the Code, a line had to be inserted in post-production in which Chris expresses his regret at having had premarital sex with Alice. As David Niven was not available, the line was done as a voice-over impression of Niven by voice actor Allen Swift.
The Catholic Legion of Decency was very offended by this film, just as it had been just a few years earlier by another David Niven movie, The Moon Is Blue (1953). The notion that the two central characters had lived together for some time before marrying was considered deeply shocking in 1959.
Kitty Carlisle and Macdonald Carey starred in the hit Broadway production which ran for 611 performances from April 7, 1954 to September 24, 1955.