This was Paul Douglas' last film. He died of a heart attack in 1959, the same year the movie was made. He was born in 1907, making him 52 when he made this film. He had been offered a starring role in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960), but the role was given to Fred MacMurray after Douglas passed away.
Debbie Reynolds was 27 when this film was made, and Tony Randall was 39, but his character states that he's 29 in one scene.
The movie was taken from a a book by H.E. Bates, "The Darling Buds of May". It is the first of five novels (and novellas) about "Pop Larkin". The original story is English, but the movie changed the setting to Maryland.
From 1991-1993 ITV aired The Darling Buds of May (1991), and the eldest daughter was an early role for Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The title "The Darling Buds of May" is from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, more famously known from its opening line, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
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