Public rejection of this film was so extreme that, in response, Greta Garbo bought out the remainder of her MGM contract and went into self-imposed retirement, never making another motion picture.
The studio forced Greta Garbo to take dancing lessons for this film, which she detested - once even hiding from her dancing instructor in a tree at her home.
The movie was originally condemned by the National Legion of Decency for its immoral attitude towards marriage, and its impudent suggestive scenes, dialogue and situations, and costumes. After the original print was revised, it was removed from the condemned list. The initial problem arose when the character played by Melvyn Douglas supposedly thought he was romancing his wife's twin sister, who he did not realize, in actual fact, was his wife herself simply impersonating her. In the revised version, Douglas makes a phone call and learns of the deception, so that now he knows it's really his own wife he's dallying with. This was sufficient for the Catholic Legion of Decency.
This film was a failure at the box office, resulting in a loss to MGM of $62,000 ($1.12M in 2019) according to studio records. However, attendance at films released at this time had been hurt by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor three weeks previously, and the country's entry into WWII.
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