Rosaura Revueltas, who played Esperanza Quintero, was a noted screen actress in her native Mexico. After this film was distributed, she was accused of being a Communist and deported. While she continued to appear in Mexican cinema, she never made another film in the US.
Because blacklisted people were among those who made the movie, the production was fraught with outside interference. The entire cast and crew were met by a citizens' committee in Central, New Mexico, where they had planned to film, and were ordered to leave town. The following day they moved the production to Silver City, NM, and were warned to "get out of town... or go out in black boxes."
Because the producers feared both sabotage and destruction of the film, the exposed footage had to be developed in secret, and at night, by a sympathetic lab technician, with the film delivered in unmarked canisters.
Members of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, Local 890, who were part of the original strike upon which this story is based, appear in this film as either extras or supporting cast. Juan Chacón, who played Ramon Quintero, was the Union Local president.
Not shown in American theaters until 1965.
This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1992.
This film's original copyright expired 1982 and was not renewed, thereby placing it into public domain.
This movie was the only blacklisted film ever in American film history. It was blacklisted during the 1950s during the height of the Cold War scare.
This was made by blacklisted director Herbert J. Biberman, screenwriter Michael Wilson, producer Paul Jarrico and composer Sol Kaplan largely in retaliation to the fact that they had been blacklisted. They reasoned that since they weren't allowed to work in Hollywood, they might as well make a film as pro-Communist as possible to fit the crime of which they had been accused.