Producer/director Edward Dmytryk wrote in his autobiography that The Reluctant Saint (1962) was, "one of my favorite films and my biggest flop."
Maximilian Schell undertook The Reluctant Saint (1962) soon after winning a Best Actor Academy Award for his role of a German lawyer in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). He would later say that despite winning the Oscar® for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) , he "did three better performances in Child of Our Time (1959) on TV, in my German Hamlet (1960) and in The Reluctant Saint (1962)."
The working title of this film was Joseph Desa.