Initially, it was going to be filmed under the title Buccaneer Empire directed by Robert Stevenson with a cast headed by Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Victor Mature and Jack Buetel.
Some of scenes of boarding and fighting on the decks of the ships are "recycled" from Pavillon noir (1945).
This was among the last starring roles on the big screen for Linda Darnell, who had been one of 20th Century- Fox's biggest stars of the 1940s. She would eventually die in a 1965 apartment fire set off when she fell asleep with a lit cigarette in her mouth. She only lived to be 41.
Many elements of this film served as inspiration for the Disneyland "imagineers" who created the theme park's iconic Pirates of the Caribbean ride (which itself served to inspire a string of swash-buckling movie hits).