The film was shot in six weeks on a budget of £80,000, and distribution company MGM reportedly had little faith in the finished product, believing they had a dud on their hands.
There were no press showings, and the film was slipped without any advance publicity into a small number of cinemas in the London area to fill a gap in programming.
Stephens' eerily chilling performance as a calm and controlling white-haired child without the capacity to feel any human emotion both thrilled and disturbed audiences, leaving a lasting impression on those who saw it.
"[2] In 1961, Stephens appeared in a smaller part in The Hellfire Club before landing another starring role in The Innocents, a screen version of the famously ambiguous Henry James novel The Turn of the Screw.
Cast as the precocious and strangely knowing Miles, he gave another unsettling performance as a disturbed and prematurely sexualised child, notably in the famous "goodnight kiss" scene with Deborah Kerr.
"[3] Stephens returned to the screen in 1965, as one of the two siblings, the other played by Olivia Hussey, who travel from England to Italy to bring home their errant mother (Maureen O'Hara) in The Battle of the Villa Fiorita.