Trivia

In a 1984 interview on "Wogan" Rock Hudson said he could not remember what this film was about.

In his second autobiography, published in 1994, Bryan Forbes made the extraordinary claim that Rock Hudson had, during a break in filming, told him all about his homosexuality. Given that homosexuality was illegal in both Britain and America at the time, sometimes punishable by terms of imprisonment, and regarded by many people as abhorrent, it seems amazing that a young actor, on the brink of major stardom, but not yet quite there, should divulge such a thing to someone he'd only recently met. Forbes did not describe the circumstances behind Hudson's admission - it might have been a proposition.

Bryan Forbes was brought into the film through his friendship with Raoul Walsh, and implied that he had done some rewriting of the screenplay at Walsh's behest. Some sources suggest that Forbes's sidekick role had originally been intended for Barry Fitzgerald - so maybe there was indeed some rewriting.

Victor Hugo is credited as the writter of the source material 'Toilers of the Sea'. However, the only similarities from the novel are the location and character names, everything else is orginal.