The rubber octopus used in this movie was later stolen by Edward D. Wood Jr.'s crew and used in Bride of the Monster (1955). They forgot to steal the motor that ran the tentacles though, so Bela Lugosi was forced to wrap the tentacles around him while he "fought" the beast.
John Wayne took the name of his production company, Batjac, from this film's shipping firm. The original spelling though was "Batjak", a likely portmanteau of "Batavia" and "Jayakarta", both being the old names of the capital of the Dutch East Indies at the time (as of 2009 it is Jakarta, Indonesia).
The second film in which John Wayneplays a sea captain embroiled in a love triangle and who must wrestle with a huge octopus. The first was Reap the Wild Wind (1942).