Trivia

Unsatisfied with Woody Strode's rehearsal of bullet-wounded drowsiness, director John Ford took his own steps to make Strode appear authentically weary for Rutledge's gunshot early on in the film. The day before the scene was to be shot, Ford got Strode drunk early in the day and had an assistant follow him around for the rest of the day to make sure he stayed that way. When the time came for Strode to shoot the scene with Constance Towers, his hangover gave him the perfect (for Ford) appearance of a man who had been shot.

Billie Burke, age 76, played Cordelia Fosgate, the wife of Col. Fosgate, played by Willis Bouchey, who was only 53.

This was Billie Burke's final film before her death on May 14, 1970 at the age of 85.

Lt. Cantrell supplies Mary Beecher with a somewhat sanitized albeit understandable explanation of the term "buffalo soldier," stating that plains Indians applied the term to African-American soldiers upon seeing them in buffalo-hide coats and hats. In reality, the Indians referred to black troops as "buffalo soldiers" because the soldiers' woolly hair reminded them of the look and consistency of the animals' shaggy coats. No racism was implied in the term, as the Indians held the bison as sacred and the perceived kinship between black soldiers and the bison caused the Indians to both respect and fear the troopers.

The first of several films Woody Strode did with John Ford, who called him his closest friend.