Penultimate film and last leading role of Alan Ladd before his death in 1964 at age 50. He would appear in one more picture, Les Ambitieux (1964), but in a supporting role.
The rocket launch failure at the beginning of the film is that of an Atlas SM-65 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
According to an article in the 14 October 1957 edition of the Los Angeles Times, John Wayne was announced as a possible choice for the lead in this film after producer Charles Schnee had bought the film rights to the 1957 novel.
The title of the novel upon which this film is based is "The Tiger Among Us". The producers changed it so as not to have audiences think this was a "jungle picture".
Columbia Pictures bought the film rights to the novel by Leigh Brackett and the film was produced by Alan Ladd's production company. The author was disappointed in the resulting picture, describing it as "very, very dull". Originally about a teenage gang from east L.A., Ladd had changed it to wealthy Bel Air to show that juvenile delinquents "can breed in exclusive areas, too".