According to King Vidor, director Josef von Sternberg was hired only as a lighting expert by David O. Selznick in order to give his wife--and the film's star--Jennifer Jones a more glamorous look.
David O. Selznick's constant rewrites of completed scenes and insistence on re-shoots caused director King Vidor to quit and be replaced by William Dieterle, although Vidor and Selznick still remained friends.
Jennifer Jones scraped and cut herself quite badly during the scene where she crawls over the rocks and dirt.
David O. Selznick reportedly spent $2 million, an unheard of sum in 1946, on the promotion of this film.