The concept of a forensic procedural is common in the 21st century, but it was brand new when this movie was made. To cap it off, the hero was played by Hispanic actor Ricardo Montalban, who was a big star in Mexico, but who mostly had been cast in Hollywood flicks as a Latin lover before this picture.
This is one of the last motion pictures in which Ricardo Montalban can be seen walking or running normally, and even playing handball in one scene. The following year, during the filming of Il cacciatore del Missouri (1951), Montalban was thrown from a horse and trampled, causing severe back injuries. Montalban was in constant pain for the rest of his life and unable to walk without a severe limp. His physical limitations often were masked by directors not showing him moving about during a scene. Instead, he typically would be shot standing or sitting, and if he had to appear to walk, the camera usually cut away just as he began to move. (Similar techniques would be used with game show emcee Bill Cullen, whose ability to walk was similarly impaired by childhood polio.) Montalban underwent an operation in 1993 to try to correct the problem but instead ended up paralyzed below the waist.
This film received an Oscar nomination for Best Screen Story.
Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban's presence on the Barnstable police force on Cape Cod is explained in the plot as a detective who usually works with the Portuguese community there. Immigrants of Portuguese descent are found along the coasts of Massachusetts and neighboring Rhode Island, particularly in the fishing industry.
Marshall Thompson was often a lead actor in black and white B pictures; he did not get the same roles in color pictures due to his fiery red hair.