Due to the success of their earlier film The Major and the Minor, screenwriter Charles Brackett and director Billy Wilder were allowed to produce their own pictures at Paramount. They searched through properties that the studio owned and came up with Lajos Biró's "Hotel Imperial" . Biro had written a number of film's for Ernst Lubitsch of whom Wilder was a big fan.

This movie features low-key lighting, a photographic look associated with the popular 1940s 'film noir' genre.

On the first day that director Billy Wilder's hero, Erich von Stroheim arrived on set, Wilder ran to the wardrobe department to welcome him. He said: "This is a very big moment in my life . . . that I should now be directing the great Stroheim. Your problem, I guess, was that you were ten years ahead of your time." Von Stroheim replied: "Twenty."

The name of the desert hotel in this movie was the "Empress of Britain Hotel". The name "Empress of Britain" has more frequently been associated as being a name of British Empire ships, specifically three Canadian Pacific Steamship Company transatlantic ocean liners which were all built in Scotland.

Erich von Stroheim playing Field Marshall Erwin Rommel dictatorially insisted on garnishing his own military uniform and he got permission from the Paramount studio to design this costume as well as his hair & makeup. He studied photographs of Rommel and then made requests for specific equipment, clothing and props. These included authentic German field glasses, a whisk, and a 35mm Leica camera with actual film. These items were all fully functional, in working order and of the correct provenance. Stroheim maintained that his performance could be affected as an actor would know if the items he were wearing or using were not authentic. Director Billy Wilder queried him about the real film in the camera which wouldn't be seen by viewers with von Stroheim replying, "An audience always senses whether a prop is genuine or false." Rommel dressed casually and wore loose-fitting uniforms yet von Stroheim demanded that he wear "a uniform as it is supposed to be worn." Von Stroheim believed that Rommel never took off his cap in the desert sun and so did not have sunburn face make-up above his eyes.