"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on
April 18, 1949 with Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston reprising their film roles.
Humphrey Bogart started losing his hair in 1947, round about the time he was making Dark Passage, partly because of hormone shots he was taking to improve his chances of having a child with wife Lauren Bacall (although his excessive drinking and lack of vitamin B were probably also factors in his hair loss). He was completely bald by the time he arrived in Mexico. Once on location, Bogart started taking vitamin B shots, and some of his hair grew back. But he did sport a wig throughout the entire shoot, albeit one that was artfully muddied and matted to cover up the joins.
Ann Sheridan is listed as a cast member in a modern source for the role of "Streetwalker," but she did not appear in the film. A streetwalker did appear near the start of the film, but it was not Sheridan.
Robert Rossen submitted at least nine drafts of rewrites on the screenplay when John Huston was away during the war.
John Huston at the time had not been married very long to Evelyn Keyes, who he constantly belittled and humiliated on the location shoot. Eventually Keyes returned to Hollywood to shoot another picture. During this time Huston decided that he wanted to adopt a little orphan boy called Pablo who had been hanging around the set. Keyes first got wind of this when she greeted Huston and Pablo at the airport upon their return from Mexico.
John Huston has a cameo as an American tourist. This scene was directed by Humphrey Bogart, who took malicious pleasure on his director by making him perform the scene over and over again.
John Huston originally wanted to cast Ronald Reagan as James Cody. Warner Bros. studio boss Jack L. Warner instead insisted on casting Reagan in The Voice of the Turtle. Bruce Bennett was eventually cast as Cody.
John Huston played one of his infamous practical jokes on Bruce Bennett in the campfire scene in which he eats a plate of stew. Bennett knew that his character was starving so he wolfed down the food as quickly as possible. Huston then demanded another take. And another. In both extra takes the rapidly filling-up Bennett again had to eat a large plate of stew. Unbeknownst to him, Huston had been happy with the first take. The cameras weren't even rolling for the second and the third. He just wanted to see how much food Bennett could lower before he became too stuffed. As soon as the joke was revealed, Huston added insult to injury by calling for a lunch break.
John Huston stated that working with his father on this picture and his dad's subsequent Oscar win were among the favorite moments of his life.
John Huston was fascinated by mysterious author B. Traven, who was a recluse living in Mexico. Traven approved of the director and his screenplay (by letter, obviously), and sent his intimate friend Hal Croves to the location to be a technical advisor and translator for $150 a week. The general consensus is that Croves was in fact Traven, though he always denied this. Huston was happy not to query him on the subject but his then-wife Evelyn Keyes was certain Croves was the mysterious author, believing that he was continually giving himself away, saying "I" when it should have been "he", and using phrases that were exactly the same as those to be found in Traven's letters to Huston. All very ironic, especially considering that Traven was offered $1000 a week to act as technical advisor on the film.
John Huston wrote the part of Howard specifically for his father, Walter Huston. The character that appears in the original novel is much older. Indeed, author B. Traven had envisaged Lewis Stone in the part.
John Huston: the man who Dobbs begs money from three times early in the film.
John Huston's original filmed depiction of Dobbs' death was more graphic - as it was in the book - than the one that eventually made it onto the screen. When Gold Hat strikes Dobbs with his machete, Dobbs is decapitated. Huston shot Dobbs' (fake) head rolling into the waterhole (there's a quick shot of Gold Hat's accomplices reacting to Dobbs' rolling head that remains in the film and in the very next shot you can see the water rippling where it rolled in). The 1948 censors would not have allowed that, so Huston camouflaged the cut shot with a repeat shot of Gold Hat striking Dobbs. Warner Bros' publicity department released a statement that Humphrey Bogart was "disappointed the scene couldn't be shown in all its graphic glory". Bogart's reaction: "What's wrong with showing a guy getting his head cut off?"
Robert Blake snatched the water glass and coffee cup - instrumental props from his big scene - as mementos of his time on the film.
Walter Huston learned his famous jig from playwright Eugene O'Neill when he was performing in O'Neill's play "Desire Under the Elms" in 1925. This most famous of dances was unscripted and was Walter's idea.
Walter Huston, father of director John Huston, won the Academy Award for best supporting actor. John won for best direction. This was the first father/son win.
Vincent Sherman was all set to direct a version of the story during the WWII years until his script fell foul of the Breen office for being derogatory towards Mexicans.
2007: The American Film Institute ranked this as the #38 Greatest Movie of All Time.
A doctor was assigned to the unit in Mexico and one night he had to attend to John Huston, who had an adverse reaction to marijuana, having smoked it for the first time with his father. He never touched the stuff again.