It was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Samuel G. Engel from a screenplay by Ivan Moffat and Dwight Taylor, based on the 1955 novel of the same name by David Divine.

She accidentally finds an ancient Greek statue of a boy riding a dolphin on the bottom of the Aegean Sea.

Her efforts to sell it to the highest bidder lead her to two competing individuals: Dr. James Calder (Alan Ladd), an honest archaeologist who will surrender it to Greek authorities, and Victor Parmalee (Clifton Webb), an aesthete and an unscrupulous dealer in historic artifacts.

The film reaches a happy conclusion, with virtue rewarded, the statue celebrated by the people of Hydra, and Phaedra and Calder in each other's arms.

The film was loosely based on David Divine's novel by the same name which was published in 1955, which presents as rivals an English archeologist and an impoverished Greek student.

Sophia Loren sings "What is this thing they call love" (Τι 'ναι αυτό που το λένε αγάπη) with an uncredited Tonis Maroudas [el].

The theme song sung by Mary Kaye is heard over the underwater title sequence: There's a tale that they tell of a dolphin And a boy made of gold.

With the shells and the pearls in the deep, He has lain many years fast asleep What they tell of the boy on a dolphin, Who can say if it's true?

The film's world premiere on 10 April 1957 in New York was a benefit for Queen Frederika's Fund for Greek Orphans.