 For a time, Robert Taylor's busy schedule saw Stewart Granger emerge as a contender to replace him but Taylor ended up playing the part.Grace Kelly turned down the film and Kay Kendall was given the part.Bosley Crowther gave the film a poor review in "The New York Times" writing, "it lacks for excitement when...the intrigues of France's Louis XI and the Duke of Burgundy are placed upon the screen in such lengthy and ponderous complexity that they exhaust and befuddle the mind."