Playwright Arthur Miller is the tall suspect in the line-up. He was close to director Elia Kazan, who would two years later direct Miller's "Death of a Salesman" on Broadway. For the play, Kazan plucked this film's Lee J. Cobb to play Willy Loman, and for his son Biff, Arthur Kennedy.
Some of the people appearing were local townspeople, not professional actors, which certainly added to the authentic look and feel of the film. Reputedly their legal agreements caused a problematic rights situation when attempts were made to release the film on home video in later years (although televised broadcasts were not seemingly a problem). The film was scheduled for a VHS release in the 1990s but was abruptly canceled just before its scheduled release date. It was released for a very brief time on DVD in 2006, which resulted in an almost immediate recall. It was finally released on DVD with no further problems in 2008.
One of the newspapers shown in close-up contains a story with the headline "Mercury New X-ray Source, Two Scientists Report". This same story appears in many movies and TV shows with newspaper close-up scenes. In real life it originally appeared in newspapers in 1934.