The film was directed and produced by Philip Dunne from a screenplay by Moss Hart, based on the book by Eleanor Ruggles.

The cast featured Richard Burton, Maggie McNamara and John Derek, along with Raymond Massey, Charles Bickford, Elizabeth Sellars and Eva Le Gallienne.

Ned returns east, where John Wilkes Booth is starring in The Taming of the Shrew to great acclaim at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Billed as the son and successor to Junius Brutus Booth, John is planning a tour and asks Ned if he will be his manager along with their younger sister, Asia.

He tells his younger brother that he hasn't learned the craft the way he, Ned, has by traveling with, hearing the performances, and looking after their father for many years.

He travels to New Orleans, where he meets, then soon marries, Mary Devlin, a member of a theatrical company who plays Juliet opposite Ned's role as Romeo.

Then comes the terrible news one night that John Wilkes Booth has assassinated President Abraham Lincoln by gunshot at Ford's theater.

Weeks after the assassination, and his brother's subsequent death on a farm in Virginia, Ned has decided to return to the stage in Hamlet.

Gradually more of the mob join him, the other actors return to the stage, and the film ends with Ned hearing his late wife speaking part of Juliet's soliloquy as the crowd's approval continues to rise.

Richard Burton, who had a contract with the studio, was linked with the project from the beginning, although there were reports he might play John Wilkes Booth.

Darryl F. Zanuck, head of Fox, reportedly wanted Laurence Olivier or Marlon Brando for Edwin Booth.

"There looking at me were Richard Burton, Raymond Massey, Eva Le Gallienne and up walks Charlie Bickford, old, cantankerous, and known to punch out directors before breakfast.'