The first movie directed by Burt Lancaster. Due to the unfavorable critical response he did not direct again for almost 20 years, until The Midnight Man (1974).
Burt Lancaster applied for membership in the Screen Directors Guild in August 1954 but was rejected because he allegedly had expressed opinions about directors regarded as uncomplimentary by the organization. The guild granted Lancaster a waiver to allow him to direct the film and invited him to reapply after it was completed.
The Los Angeles premiere was a benefit for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
The riverboat used in the movie was the Delta Queen. The company spent almost $10,000 to add the fake smokestacks.
In order to publicize the film, noted American artist Thomas Hart Benton painted a seven-foot portrait of Burt Lancaster, an unknown boy model standing in for Donald MacDonald and Faro, which Lancaster donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1978. Lancaster did not get along with the anti-gay Benton.