In his autobiography, Sir Christopher Lee claimed that Director Robert Siodmak changed the original screenplay: "The script started life as serious, nay solemn, but Robert Siodmak, the director, with all the sure touch of real tension behind him in The Killers (1946) and The Spiral Staircase (1946), took stock of the material in forty-eight hours and turned it into a comedy."
Because of cost overruns on this movie and His Majesty O'Keefe (1954), Warner Brothers insisted that future movies from Burt Lancaster be limited to $900,000. Lancaster's response was to strike a new deal with United Artists.
Cost overruns ballooned the original 1.1 million dollar budget to 1.85 million dollars.
Co-Producers Burt Lancaster and Harold Hecht were not fans of the witch hunts then taking place of Communists in Hollywood, led by the House Un-American Activities Committee. This movie was a sly slap at those activities, starting with the title, "The Crimson Pirate," during the "red scare" of the 1950's, and continuing with the plot line of a government denying the rights of the people. They got away with it, as almost nobody noticed the political content of a pirate comedy/adventure movie.
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