John Huston pocketed $250 by casting himself as an extra in the blackjack scene.
Clark Gable received $750,000 for the film plus $58,000 for each week of overtime.
Clark Gable's close friend John Lee Mahin tried to dissuade him from making the film, insisting the part required a better actor like Spencer Tracy. Gable initially felt out of place since Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach all practiced the Method, which was like an alien religion to him.
Marilyn Monroe reputedly nagged then-husband Arthur Miller to cut scenes featuring Eli Wallach's character, for fear that he would upstage her own performance.
A doctor was on call 24 hours a day for both Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift during the filming.
According to writer Arthur Miller, Clark Gable had already seen a rough cut of the movie by the last day of filming, and said, "This is the best picture I have made, and it's the only time I've been able to act."
Bored while waiting for Marilyn Monroe to turn up on the set, Clark Gable opted to do his own stunts, which included being dragged by a truck traveling at 30 mph.
Director John Huston originally wanted Robert Mitchum to play "Gay Langland" but Mitchum didn't like the script and turned it down. Huston and writer Arthur Miller rewrote the script, but by the time Mitchum got to see the rewrite he had committed to another film. The role was instead offered to Clark Gable, who took it.
Huston also provided an uncredited bit part to socialite Marietta Tree, who had been a long-time lover. Tree, born Mary Endicott Peabody, who hailed from one of New England's oldest families, was also the lover of two-time Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. Soon after this film's release, she worked in the Kennedy Administration, representing the U.S. on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Many people were shocked by the change in Clark Gable's voice, leading some to question whether he may have had lung cancer at the time of his death.
On the last day of filming, Clark Gable said, "Christ, I'm glad this picture's finished. She Monroe damn near gave me a heart attack." On the next day, Gable suffered a severe coronary thrombosis. He died in hospital from a heart attack just ten days later.
Originally written as a short story by Arthur Miller while awaiting his own divorce in Reno prior to marrying Marilyn Monroe.
The biplane that Guido flies is a 1943 Meyers OTW. It's still registered today to a couple in Northern California.
The final theatrical performances of both Monroe, Marilyn and Gable, Clark.
This movie was on television on the night Montgomery Clift died. His live-in personal secretary, Lorenzo James, asked Clift if he wanted to watch it. "Absolutely not" was Clift's reply, the last words that he spoke to anyone. He was found dead the next morning, having suffered a heart attack during the night.
This was the last completed film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Gable died of a heart attack and Monroe died of an alleged drug overdose a year later. (Note: While Something's Got to Give is listed as her last film, it was never completed because she was fired.)
United Artists executives were unhappy with the rough cut of the film, so director John Huston, producer Frank E. Taylor, and writer Arthur Miller all agreed to reshoot several scenes. Clark Gable had script approval, however, and he rejected the idea. Other disagreements over the final cut resulted in the elimination of a shot of Marilyn Monroe's naked breast from the bedroom scene.
Well-known Nevada Casino Lounge singer Frank Fanelli Sr. was cast as one of the bar gamblers betting on Marilyn Monroe in the paddle board scene in the bar. Frank Sinatra was a fan of Fanelli's, and often attended his shows in Nevada. The bar from the movie is still in business in Dayton, Nevada.
When Montgomery Clift was filming one of his rodeo stunts, his shirt was ripped. They decided to keep filming and the torn shirt can be seen in several shots.