Ernest Borgnine met his future wife Katy Jurado while working on this film. A reporter saw the two laughing over lunch one day and started a rumor that the two were involved romantically, which Borgnine insisted for the rest of his life was not true. The story persisted, though, and Borgnine's wife ended up divorcing him because of it. Ironically, he and Jurado grew closer and closer because of this trouble, and ended up marrying in 1959 and would remain so until 1963.
This was produced during the famed musician's strike of 1958, forcing MGM to score it with stock cues from earlier films, many of them sub-standard and/or inappropriate to the scene in question. It remains the film's chief sore spot.
The opening scene, of Alan Ladd's character being released from prison, was, as scripted, actually filmed at the Yuma Territorial Prison in Yuma, Arizona.
This film failed at the box office, resulting in a loss to MGM of $373,000 ($3.77M in 2022) according to studio records.
According to contemporary articles by columnist Hedda Hopper, William Holden was first considered for the lead, then James Cagney and Paul Newman were also mentioned as the lead, before Alan Ladd was finally cast.