This musical was declared "morally objectionable" by the Catholic Church's National Legion of Decency for portraying divorce as respectable.
This is the only film in which José Iturbi starred as an actor rather than a performer or specialty act. As his acting ability was limited, the pianist played himself as a rule, as he does in this film. However, he had been presented as a married man with many children just two years earlier in "Holiday in Mexico" (1946), so his appearance as a bachelor in this film is jarring to those familiar with the MGM musical canon. It is a testament to filmmaking before the advent of television and home video, a time when most films were not likely to be seen or clearly remembered after their initial release.
This film was initially telecast in Philadelphia Thursday 30 January 1958 on WFIL (Channel 6), followed by Los Angeles 20 March 1958 on KTTV (Channel 11); it was not aired in San Francisco until 23 June 1961 on KGO (Channel 7), and New York City televiewers had to wait until it was offered on the Late Show 8 March 1963 on WCBS (Channel 2), possibly because of sponsor's resistance to backing it based on the all powerful Catholic Church's "Morally Objectionable for All" 1948 rating (see above). At this time, color broadcasting was in its infancy, limited to only a small number of high rated programs, primarily on NBC and NBC affiliated stations, so these film showings were all still in B&W. Viewers were not offered the opportunity to see these films in their original Technicolor until several years later. But today's TCM viewers can see it in now in all its 3-strip Technicolor glory, and ignore yesteryear's patriarchal warnings of the Catholic Church.
Despite the prodigious amount of music in the film, this is one of a small handful of MGM musicals that was not released as a soundtrack album on the MGM Records label.