Charlton Heston received no salary for this movie. He took a percentage of the box-office profits instead. According to his autobiography, it turned out to be a good deal as the film was financially successful and that he received residual checks "for years".
Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who co-wrote the screenplay, are best known as the creators of the long running television show Leave It to Beaver (1957).
Filmed at St. Catherine's Military School campus in 1955, with cadets as the actors in all but the leading roles. The picture features a full battalion of St. Catherine's students. The K through 8th grade boarding school is the only Catholic Military School west of the Mississippi. It was established in 1889 in Anaheim, California. As of 2023 it is still in existence.
Tim Considine, who plays the sensitive (if not coddled) cadet who is berated by Major Benson in this film, would later play the battle-fatigued soldier who gets slapped by the title character in Patton (1970).
Tim Hovey, who plays Cadet 'Tiger' Flaherty, was ten years old when this film was released. He later gave up acting and, in the late 1970s and the 1980s, became a roadie for Grateful Dead.