Of all the films he had directed, this one was Elia Kazan's favorite film, as it was very personal to him.
Estelle Helmsley, who plays the Greek grandmother, was actually an African-American actress.
Kazan began shooting in Istanbul, but was concerned that Turkish officials would object to some of the material content and moved his base of production to Greece.
Kazan speaks the credits at the end but omits voicing his own name.
Gene Callahan was Kazan's 'set decorator' on films that Dick Sylbert, and his twin brother Paul, as an associate, had art directed for Kazan. The Sylbert twins had worked with Gene on CBS-New York Network and Local television productions as an art department team. Kazan asked Gene to travel with him to Greece, and to be his film's Production Designer. Noteworthy is that this is Gene's first 'art director' credit. During the film's location filming, Gene also decorated, as he supervised the sets preparation for filming (construction and set decorating) crews. During the film career of Kazan and Callahan, they performed as a team on many succeeding film projects.