John Payne and Ronald Reagan were both signed as contract players at Warner Brothers around the same time. Payne was later let go and signed with 20th Century Fox where he made his name, while Reagan remained at Warner's. The two were good friends for nearly 50 years, but this was the first and only time they ever shared the screen. However, in 1944, John Payne appeared in a United States Army Air Force training film called B29 Engineer. Payne's voice was not used, but the narrator of the training film was a certain Major Ronald Reagan.
At one point in this film, John Payne slaps Rhonda Fleming and then tells her "Big girls don't cry." This inspired songwriter Bob Gaudio to write the song "Big Girl Don't Cry", which became a hit for his band The Four Seasons.
One of four films that John Payne and Rhonda Fleming appeared in together, the others being L'aquila e il falco (1950), Il tesoro del fiume sacro (1951), and Veneri rosse (1956).
John Payne, Rhonda Fleming and Colleen Gray would all later actively campaign for their co-star Ronald Reagan's runs for governorship and presidency.