Charles Laughton portrayed a minister in one sequence which, because of its dramatic tone in an otherwise frothy comedy, wound up on the cutting room floor. Mr. Laughton's segment was replaced with a parody of Dorothy Lamour's South Seas movie epics. Independent producer David O. Selznick offered to buy the film in order to issue the Laughton sequence as a short, scrapping the rest of the picture. Selznick's plan was rejected by producer Benedict Bogeaus and producer-star Burgess Meredith.
Titled "A Miracle Can Happen", this film debuted on February 3, 1948 at the Warner Theatre in Manhattan. During February, the feature also opened in Philadelphia and Detroit. In June, when released nationally, the picture ran nine minutes shorter than its original 107 minutes, and the film's name had been changed to "On Our Merry Way," thus avoiding any religious connection that moviegoers might assume by seeing the word "miracle" in the title.