Trivia

During filming, Yul Brynner's hand was cut by a former crazed lover who traveled across Europe to find him. There are scenes where Brynner's bandaged hand is not shown on-screen, and there are scenes where he is holding a prop to camouflage the hand.

While a guest on the interview podcast "WTF with Marc Maron" in 2016, Ron Howard told Maron that as a child on the set of this movie, Yul Brynner made a vivid impression on him. Howard was especially transfixed while watching Brynner shoot a scene in which his character was supposed to bite into a drinking glass, and to the astonishment of the then-five-year-old Howard, Brynner actually did it. After the shot was over, however, Brynner (who had noticed how impressed the little boy was with the scene) called Howard over to explain to him that the "glass" was actually an edible prop made out of sugar, and to warn the child that he should never actually bite a real glass.

Loosely based on the short story by Guy de Maupassant, "Boule de suif" (literally "Ball of Fat," though "Dumpling" or "Butterball" might be better translations). Set during the Franco-Prussian War, it's been used as the basis for other films/TV episodes as well. In this case, Deborah Kerr's Lady Ashmore is quite different than the prostitute "Dumpling" in the original story, but while Yul Brynner's Major Surov has more depth and humanity than the Prussian officer in Maupassant's story, the basic motivation for his attraction is similar, though perhaps less vulgar. In both cases, her fellow travelers selfishly and ignobly pressure "Dumpling"/"Lady Ashmore" to sacrifice herself to the officer for their freedom.

This film was Jason Robards's feature film debut, the son of character actor Jason Robards (1892-1963). Ron Howard had appeared in an unbilled part in the 1956 film Frontier Woman, but The Journey marked his first credited appearance; he was billed as Ronny Howard.

The airplane seen at the beginning of the film, a 1943 Douglas C-47A (DC-3), registration OE-FDA would soon be involved in a fatal crash. On May 2, 1959, after taking off from Mallorca, Spain, it would slam into Alfabia Peak at 3,300 feet, killing all five aboard.