The brown Fedora worn by Henry Fonda belonged to Spencer Tracy and was given to Fonda by Katharine Hepburn on the first day on the set. Overwhelmed with the gesture, Fonda painted a still life watercolor of the three hats he wore in the film and gave the original to Hepburn as a gift. He had 200 lithographs made of the painting and sent one to every person who worked on the film. Each copy was numbered and personally signed by Fonda, thanking each person by name. In her autobiography, Hepburn wrote that she gave the painting to screenwriter Ernest Thompson. After Fonda's death, she found the painting to be a sad reminder of him and Tracy.
During a pivotal scene for the father/daughter, the camera was rolling for that close-up, "I reached out and placed my hand on his arm as I said, 'I want to be your friend.' What I saw amazed me: for a millisecond he was caught off-guard. He seemed angry, even: This isn't what we rehearsed. Then the emotions hit him, tears came to his eyes, then anger again as he tensed up and looked away....I loved him so much just then. It amazes me what a great actor he was in spite of his fear of spontaneity and real emotions." The take appears in the final film.
Apparently, stars Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn had not only never worked together, but had never even met prior to working on this picture, despite having mutual friends and acquaintances.
James Stewart had wanted to star in the movie, but Jane Fonda bought the rights to the play before he could.
After Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), this was the second-highest-grossing film of 1981 at the US box office. Both films were nominated for Best Picture, but they lost to Chariots of Fire (1981).
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