'The Hollywood Reporter' once reported that actors Robert Francis; John Goddard; Tom Laughlin and Ralph Reed were going to appear in this movie. None of these actors appear in this movie with Robert Francis passing away shortly before production lensed.
Eddie Albert was approaching his fiftieth birthday at the time of filming, making him much older than the character he played. However, director Robert Aldrich felt it didn't matter since Albert looked young for his age.
According to the 19 February 1956 edition of 'The New York Times', the production budget cost for this movie was US $ 850,000.
Actor Richard Jaeckel said of this film in Edwin T. Arnold's biography of Robert Aldrich, 'The Films and Career of Robert Aldrich': "There were scenes of incredible tension - Palance Jack Palance coming down the stairs to get Albert Eddie Albert - we were all impressed, even in rehearsals. It was a heavy project."
Actors Jack Palance and Lee Marvin were veterans of World War II as were Peter van Eyck and Eddie Albert.
After reading the script, the military flatly refused to allow any co-operation with the production. That meant no tanks, no uniforms, no troops. They didn't even allow director Robert Aldrich to view any Signal Corps footage. Aldrich managed to rent two tanks; by careful staging and ingenuity, he was able to convey the impression that many more were being used.
Although he plays a coward in this film, in real life Eddie Albert, who served in WW II, was a war hero, in one engagement having braved heavy enemy fire to rescue 70 wounded Marines.
Apparently, women were banned from being on the set according to the production notes press-book for this movie. This was done in order to establish authenticity for the actors.
Combat and battle sequences were filmed on the back-lot of two studios: The RKO-Pathé Studios back-lot and the Universal Studios back-lot. They were also shot on the Albertson Ranch in Agoura, California.
Congressman Melvin Price openly criticized the military for their non-involvement in the film, calling it a "shameful attempt at censorship". United Artists were only too happy to exploit this with teaser posters asking "Is this the most controversial picture of the year?" On the back of this, the film grossed nearly $2 million (United Artists had projected a gross of around $20,000).
Director Robert Aldrich said of this film in Edwin T. Arnold's biography 'The Films and Career of Robert Aldrich': "My main anti-war argument was not the usual 'war is hell,' but the terribly corrupting influence that war can have on the most normal, average human beings, and the terrible things it makes them capable of that they wouldn't be capable of otherwise." Aldrich added that this film was meant to be a "sincere plea for peace."
Feature film movie debut for actor William Smithers portraying Lieutenant Harold 'Harry' Woodruff. Smithers prior to this role had only worked in television.
Made on the RKO lot in only 35 days for a minimal budget of $750,000.
On the 27 February 1956, director Robert Aldrich wrote a letter to the Chief of the Motion Picture Section of the Pictorial Branch of the US Department of Defense (DOD), Donald Baruch, protesting this movie's rejection by the US Army and US DOD. It stated: "Theatrically and film wise, moral values are measured in comparatives; strength is measured against weakness; heroics against cowardice . . . We feel strongly that our film is one that shows beyond question qualities of moral righteousness, leadership, courage, heroism and above all, personal integrity on the part of both enlisted men and officers of the Army. To make characters white it is necessary to have a reflective comparison against characters that are not white. Such is the case in our film." In a later 11 March 1956 reply letter, Aldrich added: "No citizen sets out intentionally to defame the defense organization of his country. There obviously can and at times should be differences of opinion as to what is for the good of the country and what is not. Should one lose such an argument at such a level, fine, but never to have the chance or the opportunity to make that argument to me seems a little ridiculous."
Records in the Department of Defense Film Collection at Georgetown University Library suggest that both the US Department of Defense and the US Army refused to assist with the production of this movie based on its film script. Just before production filming began on 16 January 1956, a 13 January 1956 letter from the Office of the Chief of Information of the Department of the US Army said that this film's movie script "is a very distasteful story and derogatory of Army leadership during combat including weak leadership, cowardice, and finally, the murder of the Company Commander." Moreover, a 26 January 1956 Department of Defense memo reiterated this, concurring with the "Army appraisal." The upshot of this was that the production were forced to buy or hire army and military equipment and weapons and could not loan or borrow them from those Defense arms.
This movie screened as part of the New York City retrospective film program "Apocalypse Anytime! The Films of Robert Aldrich", 11 March - 8 April 1994.
Two of the lead cast in this Robert Aldrich war film of the Second World War, Richard Jaeckel and Lee Marvin, would go onto appear in the same director's later hugely successful World War II war movie, The Dirty Dozen. Respectively, they play the characters of MP Sergeant Clyde Bowren and Major John Reisman in The Dirty Dozen and Private Snowden and Lieutenant Colonel Clyde Bartlett, CO of White Battalion in Attack. The two would also reprise their "Dirty Dozen" characters in The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission. In all three Aldrich war movies, Marvin has a higher rank than Jaeckel.