Through writer, producer, and director Michael Powell and writer, producer, and director Emeric Pressburger's deal with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, this movie was assured solid distribution in the United States, because it had entered into an agreement with Universal Studios in 1946 which resulted in the distribution arm Universal-International. As it turned out, this movie had only spotty distribution in America due to censorship problems. Powell later observed, "They couldn't leave a picture with nuns in it alone." Powell and Pressburger actually were aware of the potential for censorship trouble in America before this movie was shot. In April of 1945, a rough draft of the script was submitted to Joseph Breen at the Production Code Administration. Breen outlined his initial concerns to the J. Arthur Rank Organisation: "While the story is not quite clear and concise, to us it has about it a flavor of sex sin in connection with certain of the nuns, which, in our judgment, is not good." The Breen office, however, passed the finished movie in June 1947, but on the condition that a foreword was added making it clear that the nuns were Anglo, rather than Roman Catholic. Indeed, it was with the Catholic Legion of Decency that the J. Arthur Rank Organisation encountered the most problems. The Legion of Decency launched a campaign against this movie's release as early as April 1946, when the Archbishop of Calcutta began writing about the production. Predictably, when this movie was reviewed by the Catholic weekly "The Tidings", published in Los Angeles, California, the judgment was harsh: "It is a long time since the American public has been handed such a perverted specimen of bad taste, vicious inaccuracies, and ludicrous improbabilities." When the Legion of Decency screened this movie, it was given a "C" classification, or "Condemned". Street reported that "out of thirteen priests, eight gave it a 'C' rating, the rest recommending A2, unobjectionable for adults."

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