The film includes a very touching scene based on the execution of Private Eddie Slovik, the only case of a soldier executed in US Armed Forces during World War Two. In 1960, Frank Sinatra intended to produce a film based on the same story with a screenplay by Albert Maltz, one of the blacklisted in the infamous Hollywood Ten. But Sinatra was advised against it, because he himself could be suspected of communism, and finally decided against the project. Carl Foreman, who left the United States in 1952 because he was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, decided to use the case of Private Slovik, and in the scene utilized the Frank Sinatra version of the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".