The only film that year nominated for Best Motion Picture Drama at the Golden Globes, and not Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

John Sturges was the original director, but on March 15, 1957, only a week before the shooting was scheduled to begin, he withdrew due to illness, according to contemporary news items. George Cukor took over and stated years later in a interview that Sturges left the project to replace Fred Zinnemann on The Old Man and the Sea (1958), but a Cukor biography states that Sturges left the project when it became apparent that the film would be more of a love story than an action picture.

In Australia "WILD IS THE WIND" was named as one of "THE ten films of 1958" by "The Australian Women's Weekly" published on Wednesday 31st December 1958 on Page 52.

Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani played a married couple again in The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969).

Lili Valenty's debut.