When Universal announced on February 20, 1946 its purchase of the screen rights to the Broadway show, Felix Jackson, then-husband of Deanna Durbin, was assigned to produce the film. Instead, the studio revealed on November 8 that Mr. Jackson would be opting out of the remainder of his contract after he finished overseeing the editing of another Durbin feature, I'll Be Yours (1947).
During filming, sepia (brownish) tone was tested in a few scenes, but the released picture is entirely in standard black and white.
Two members of the Broadway show's creative team were exported to the Universal International lot. Helen Tamiris adapted her stage choreography for the screen, and stage designer Howard Bay was hired as the film's production designer.
Of Deanna Durbin's 21 Universal features released between 1936 and 1948, only two films, this one plus her next and last, For the Love of Mary (1948), were box-office disappointments; seeing them once again, it's easy to understand why.
Shooting in Technicolor was set to start in December 1946, but due to a year-end strike at the Technicolor processing facilities, the project was initially postponed until July 1947. When filming finally commenced in October, black-and-white cinematography was employed as a cost-saving measure to keep the movie budgeted at about $2,000,000. In addition, Universal International was avoiding a Technicolor bottleneck, as described by William Goetz, the studio's production chief, to Thomas F. Brady of The New York Times on September 28, 1947. With a color shoot, Mr. Goetz explained, studio capital would be tied up in the picture for nearly a year after its completion. Back in January, Universal International, wanting Deanna Durbin to stay active, had rushed her before the black-and-white cameras in another vehicle, Something in the Wind (1947), which the studio had bought for her in August 1946.