While filming a battle between the forces of Pancho Villa and federal troops near Ojinaga for Life of Villa (1912), cameraman Charles Rosher was captured by federal soldiers and brought before their commanding general. Rosher thought he was about to be executed as a spy, and things didn't look too good for him until the Mexican general noticed Rosher's Masonic pin in his lapel. The general then gave Rosher the Masonic greeting; it turned out he was a Mason, too. Instead of being shot as a spy, Rosher was treated as a guest, and was later released after the Mexican government made a deal with the American government that allowed their troops to cross into American territory in order to outflank Villa's forces and attack them from the rear.
The actual contract that Pancho Villa signed with Frank N. Thayer and the Mutual Film Company on 5 January 1914 to film the battle of Ojinaga still exists and is in a museum in Mexico City.
The original film The Life of General Villa (1914), the second film made about Pancho Villa's life by the Mutual Film Company, has been lost, but some unedited reels of the battle of Ojinaga (January 1914), showing Pancho Villa and his army fighting federal forces, as well as photographs and publicity stills taken from the original film, do still exist.
Pedro Armendáriz Jr., who plays Don Luis Terrazas, played Pancho Villa in Old Gringo (1989) and is the son of Pedro Armendáriz, who also played Pancho Villa in several Mexican movies.
When Pancho Villa signs his contract at the beginning of the film , it is the same signature as the authentic Villa signature.