Cary Grant had sworn never to make another historical film after The Howards of Virginia (1940) failed both critically and with audiences. He made an exception for this film, which ultimately failed to make a profit, though in this case, his performance was admired by audiences.
Marlon Brando was scheduled to co-star but bowed out after reading the script, which was not to his liking. He was replaced by Frank Sinatra.
This was the first of two films Sophia Loren and Cary Grant starred in together. Grant was in love with Loren, and the two had an affair. This had caused a rift with wife, Betsy Drake. But Loren was spooked by his obsession with her, and soon married her agent/mentor Carlo Ponti.
The Pride and the Passion (1957) marked Sophia Loren's first appearance in an English-language film. In her autobiography, Loren credited dialogue supervisor Anne P. Kramer, who was the then-wife of director Stanley Kramer, with helping her to learn English and practice her lines every night. Since she spoke little English at the time, her lines were written phonetically.