Billy Wilder began shooting this film in 1946, soon after winning an Oscar for
The Lost Weekend (1945). That film's great critical reception (and unexpected box-office success) gave Wilder more power and he spent a lot of time and money on this musical (which was his first color film). He was very dissatisfied with the result, however, and the release of the film was extensively delayed, perhaps for re-takes--Wilder liked to say he was hoping to delay its release as long as possible. It opened in Britain a month before its American debut, most unusually, and was a critical and box-office flop. In 1969, he told an interviewer, "I never want to see it again". His next film,
A Foreign Affair (1948), opened in America only three months later.