Concerned that the critics would not be kind to an actor appearing in a film he wrote, Don Murray penned the screenplay under the pseudonym "Don Deer", his nickname as a track and field athlete in high school in Rockaway, NY.
United Artists initially gave the producers a $350,000 budget for the film - a very low amount for the time. The producers quickly went over budget by 70% by using a union film crew and going on location for a month half-way across the country to St. Louis. The local union also made the production hire even more non-essential crew. Producer Walter Wood had to travel to New York City to get U.A. executives to increase funding for the picture. Producers Wood and Murray ended up having to promise to pay back the additional money if the film tanked at the box office. This guarantee caused Murray great anxiety as it would have ruined him financially if he had to pay up.
A contemporary article in Variety noted this film was the fourth highest-grossing picture in the country in its first week of release, behind Exodus (1960), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), and One-Eyed Jacks (1961).
The sold-out premiere netted $75,000 for the Father Dismas Clark Foundation. One of the attendees was Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa.
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