 In August 1952 Mario Lanza (qv) recorded the soundtrack. The whole  recording was done in single takes. Every phrase in it was Lanza  magic at its best. However, on the film set things were not to go  well at all. The first scene to be shot was the song "Beloved" on  the terrace. Director Curtis Bernhardt (qv) did not like the way  the song was sung and corrected Lanza, telling him that he was  putting too much emotion in his singing instead of sounding more  stuffy and rigid like a Prussian prince. Lanza informed Bernhardt  that he was to direct only his acting, and that Lanzas singing was  strictly Lanzas department. Bernhardt would not accept this, and  Lanza would not be told how to sing by a movie director. The end  result was that Lanza walked off the set and vowed not to return as  long as Bernhardt was the director. The studio took an injunction  against Lanza for damages and losses. He could not perform in  public, on radio, or in the recording studio for the remaining time  of his contract with MGM (which was then 15 months). A solution was  reached in May 1953: the studio would remove the embargo on Lanza if  he would allow his voice to be used while another actor played the  part of the prince. This was agreed to and the filming got under way  with Edmund Purdom (qv) lip