According to King Vidor, director Josef von Sternberg was hired only as a lighting expert by David O. Selznick in order to give his wife--and the film's star--Jennifer Jones a more glamorous look.
David O. Selznick's constant rewrites of completed scenes and insistence on re-shoots caused director King Vidor to quit and be replaced by William Dieterle, although Vidor and Selznick still remained friends.
Jennifer Jones scraped and cut herself quite badly during the scene where she crawls over the rocks and dirt.
This film's musical score was the subject of a famous soundstage exchange between producer David O. Selznick and composer Dimitri Tiomkin. After Selznick first heard Tiomkin's love theme, he was visibly disappointed and admonished the composer, "You don't understand. I want real f**king music!" To which Tiomkin angrily replied, "You f**k your way, I f**k my way. F**k you - I quit!" Their differences were eventually patched up, and Tiomkin's music was used in the final film.