Ross Hunter wrote that after he made this film, no theatre managers wanted to book it. Popular movie themes at the time were war films, westerns, and spectacles. Hunter was told by the big movie chains that sophisticated comedies like this movie went out with
William Powell. They also believed that
Doris Day and
Rock Hudson were things of the past and had been overtaken by newer stars. Hunter persuaded
Sol Schwartz, who owned the Palace Theatre in New York, to book the film for a two-week run, and it was a smash hit. The public had been starved for romantic comedy, and theatre owners who had previously turned down Hunter now had to deal with him on HIS terms.
