John Huston considered this his best film. After a power struggle at the top of MGM management, the film was cut from a 2 hour epic to the 69 minute version released to theaters. It was never released as a A-list movie but was shown as a 2nd feature B-list movie. Both Houston and star Audie Murphy tried unsuccessfully to purchase the film so that it could be re-edited to its original length. The studio claiming that the cut footage was destroyed. Unless there is an undiscovered copy of the uncut version, this movie will never be viewed as John Huston intended.
James Whitmore's narration was added after several disastrous previews and extensive editing.
John Dierkes, who plays 'The Tall Soldier', also narrates the trailer.
A huge chunk of Royal Dano's role was removed from the final print.
Director John Huston lost control of this picture when, over his objections, his bosses at MGM recut it, editing out over 20 minutes. Whole scenes, including one featuring Royal Dano, were discarded. Huston did not waste any time fighting over it, as he was focused on the pre-production of his next picture, The African Queen. Lillian Ross wrote about the trials of producing "The Red Badge of Courage" in her book "Picture".
Early in the film, Henry Fleming ('Audie Murphy') is shown writing a letter to his family. The date at the top of the letter is 10 September, 1862. This makes the battle depicted in the film either Turner's Gap, South Mountain, Maryland, on Sept 14; or Antietam Creek (Sharpsburg), Maryland, on Sept 17. Scholarship generally agrees that the battle in the novel is more like Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 1863. The novel never names a place or gives a date. One year after the publication of the novel, Stephen Crane had a short story entitled "The Veteran," published in McClure's magazine. In the story Henry Fleming is an old man telling the story of his first battle in the Civil War. There Fleming identifies the battle as being Chancellorsville.
This production amounted to a power struggle between Louis B. Mayer and producer Dore Schary. Mayer rejected the production (partly on account of it lacking women and thus a romance angle) and Schary insisted. Mayer appealed to Loew's Inc. chairman Nicholas Schenck and was rebuffed. This and other ego-bruising incidents that occurred during the same period resulted in Mayer's ouster from the company he helped found in 1924. As Mayer predicted the $1.6 million film flopped badly but by the Summer of 1951 he was out.