In the Norman Mailer novel, Lieutenant Hearn is killed when Sergeant Croft allows him up to walk into the Japanese machine gun nest Martinez had discovered on his one-man night reconnaissance. Martinez had shared the knowledge of the machine gun nest only with Croft, who in turn kept it from Lieutenant Hearn and the other men.
This film was originally to be released by RKO Pictures, but by the time it was ready for release, that studio had closed down and the film was distributed by Warner Bros. It may be the only instance where the logos of both companies appear on the same film