The picture was shot in Death Valley, California. Cinematographer Charles Edgar Schoenbaum made the mistake one day of going outside - in the 110-degree-plus temperature - without wearing his hat, and within minutes was rendered almost completely incapacitated by sunstroke. He started hallucinating and babbling about seeing pink haystacks (one of the first effects of sunstroke is the victim sees everything as pink) and was seriously ill for several days.