Film debut of Burt Lancaster. Although this was his first film--at 33 years of age--he received top billing.
The entire Prentiss Hat Co. robbery was filmed with one camera and no cuts. It required quick coordination among dozens of people and several vehicles.
Ernest Hemingway, author of the original short story, liked the film. Prior to its release, producer Mark Hellinger sent publicity man Al Horwits to Sun Valley, Idaho, to give Hemingway a private screening. Hemingway had a pint of gin in one pocket of his overcoat and a pint of water in the other so that he could sip from them if the film got bad. After the screening, Hemingway held up the full bottles, grinned, and said, "Didn't need 'em."
Virginia Christine (a.k.a. The Folgers Coffee Lady), who plays Swede's girlfriend (Lilly Harmon Lubinsky) before he meets Kitty, also appears in the remake, Der Tod eines Killers (1964), in a different role as a blind secretary (Miss Watson).
According to Ernest Hemingway's biographer Carlos Baker, this film "was the first film from any of his works that Ernest could genuinely admire."