According to "Run Baby Run", the autobiography of Nicky Cruz, the Mau Mau gang actually wore black leather jackets with crimson double M's on the back instead of red jackets with white double M's, as depicted in the film.
According to an Erik Estrada biography published in 2004, the film is shown in roughly 500 youth centers every week.
Although the real life events that inspired the film happened in the 1950's, the movie seems to take place in the late 1960's.
The real crime in the story is that Wilkerson let his vintage Chevy Bel Air reach such a state of disrepair.
Jacqueline Giroux is of French ancestry.