William Faulkner completed an adaptation of the 1950 novel for Director Howard Hawks, a longtime collaborator, but the results were deemed "rather dull and sincere, with an abundance of narration" by Hawks biographer Todd McCarthy, and was shelved.
In order to appear Chinese, Lee J. Cobb wore make-up in a style known as "Yellow Face."
This film unites Victor Sen Yung with Benson Fong. They played number two son Jimmy Chan and number three son Tommy Chan in the long running Charlie Chan film franchise. Interestingly, they never appeared together in any of the Chan films, and later in the series for some unknown reason, the producers changed Sen Young's character's name to Tommy Chan.