- Actor-Inspired Element: In the stage version, Linda Low is a terrible dancer, and her routines are played for comedy. Her actress in the film Nancy Kwan was a trained ballerina, so Linda becomes a better dancer.
- Billing Displacement: Nancy Kwan, who had just come off her Star-Making Role The World of Suzie Wong, is given top billing. She plays Linda Low, who is probably the third most important character.
- Breakaway Pop Hit: For all the covers "I Enjoy Being a Girl" receives, it seems a little unlikely that many people can name the musical it originated from, or even recognize it as a Rodgers and Hammerstein piece.
- The Cast Show Off:
- Nancy Kwan, a trained ballerina, shows off plenty of her dance skills in Linda's routines.
- Patrick Adiarte, Ta's little brother, shows off his dancing in both "The Other Generation" and "Chop Suey".
- The Dream Ballet in "Love Look Away" gives the trained ballerina Reiko Sato a chance to show off as well.
- Creator In-Joke: In the brief scene where Sammy Fong and Mei Lei sit in a beatnik coffee shop, on stage someone reads the poem "Like A God". This was a planned song between the two that got cut from the original stage version.
- Cut Song:
- "Like A God", to avoid offending conservative viewers in the South.
- "My Best Love."
- Also, "This Isn't Heaven," later used in the 1962 remake of State Fair.
- Dawson Casting: Ta is a young college student just about to graduate. James Shigeta had already turned thirty
- Dear Negative Reader: Nancy Kwan's response to people complaining about Japanese actors playing Chinese characters?"You can’t win. They should be happy it was an all-Asian cast regardless of Japanese and Chinese.”
- Executive Meddling:
- The lyrics of "Chop Suey" - "Harry Truman, Truman Capote and Dewey" - were changed to "Bobby Darrin, Sandra Dee and Dewey" because producer Ross Hunter had Bobby Darrin and Sandra Dee under contract, and they were more recognisable names. And of course Harry Truman hadn't been in power for a decade. Thomas Dewey remained in the song simply because no other words rhymed with 'suey'.
- In the original novel Helen commits suicide. Rogers and Hammerstein thought that was too depressing an ending for such a strong character. As such her story is left unresolved.
- Fake American: Mildly. Nancy Kwan was Eurasian from Hong Kong. Linda Low is said to have been born in San Francisco.
- Fake Nationality: A good number of the cast members in the film and Broadway performances are of Japanese descent. In the film, Madame Liang is played by Juanita Long Hall, who is Afro-American, and Wang San is played by Filipino Patrick Adiarte. The rest of the cast is effectively split 50/50 with actors of Japanese (James Shigeta, Jack Soo, Mysohi Umeki, Reiko Sato) and Chinese (Nancy Kwan, Benson Fong, Victor Sen Yung, Soo Yong) descent.
- Funny Character, Boring Actor: Inverted. Miyoshi Umeki plays the very demure Mei Li but was known for being very funny out of character. When asked what the Japanese word for money was, she replied "loot".
- Hollywood Hype Machine: Reiko Sato, who played Helen, was a new contract player for both Fox and Universal, and was getting personal coaching from Marlon Brando. She got to play his wife in The Ugly American right after this, but nothing materialised, and she quickly retired from Hollywood.
- Irony as She Is Cast: Nancy Kwan plays the thoroughly-Americanized Linda Low, born and raised in San Francisco. In fact, Kwan was the only principle member of the cast born in China (Hong Kong to be specific).
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: The movie did not come to DVD until 2006, seven years after Rodgers and Hammerstein movies started coming to DVD. Even the long-lost TV special Cinderella and the widely panned State Fair remake beat it to the punch.
- Non-Singing Voice:
- Nancy Kwan was dubbed by BJ Baker for Linda Low's singing.
- Marilyn Horne dubbed Reiko Sato for Helen Chao's too.
- Kam Tong was dubbed by John Dodson when Dr Li sings.
- Playing Against Type: Patrick Adiarte had previously starred in The King and I playing the naive Prince Chulalongkorn - who refuses to believe anything about Western culture. Here he's Ta's wholly Americanized brother San - who drops Totally Radical dialogue.
- Reality Subtext: Miyoshi Umeki was aptly cast as Mei Li - the girl who becomes enamored with American culture. She herself had been a fan of American music as a child, and that's what encouraged her to go into performing.
- Role Reprise: Miyoshi Umeki (Mei Li), Juanita Hall (Madame Liang) and Patrick Adiarte (Wang San) all reprised their roles from the stage version in the film. Jack Soo had played Sammy's emcee on the stage, but got bumped up to Sammy himself in the film.
- Stunt Casting: Nancy Kwan was mainly cast because of her sudden popularity from The World of Suzie Wong. She recalls meeting producer Ross Hunter at a party, him pointing at her and saying "you're Linda Low!"
- What Could Have Been:
- A more direct adaptation of CY Lee's novel could have been produced - as he was offered a choice between a stage version or film version. He got drunk and took the stage offer, through which it involved into a musical once Rogers & Hammerstein heard about it.
- Anna May Wong was set to star as Madame Liang in the film version. But she died suddenly before production began, and Juanita Long Hall replaced her.
General:
- For whatever reason, the 1961 movie stands as the only big-screen, live-action Rodgers and Hammerstein musical adaptation that 20th Century Fox doesn't own the rights to — Universal International released the movie instead.
- Film debut of Jack Soo.
