Jeff Chandler, a Jew whose real name was Ira Grossel, was extremely proud of his Jewish heritage. Kurta was the only explicitly Jewish character he ever got to play in his career.
The first Hollywood film about the founding of Israel.
This film was seen as anti-British and was very controversial in the UK - so much so that there were such violent demonstrations at theaters in London that showings were canceled there by the city's government only five days after its opening. In the U.S. there was criticism that the Arab Palestinian side in the conflict was essentially ignored and that divisions in the Jewish side were glossed over.
Universal barred reporters from the set during the last week of filming because negative stories about the picture had begun to appear in the British press.
Dana Andrews mentions the ship Exodus, which was a book and then a movie ( Exodus (1960) ) by Dana's five-time director Otto Preminger, who he'd work with the following year in Mark Dixon, détective (1950).