Trivia

A Thunder of Drums is notable for the involvement of James Warner Bellah, a controversial author who made a name for himself by writing a series of pulp magazine stories about the U.S. Cavalry. Famed director John Ford took early notice of Bellah, adapting many of his cavalry stories printed in The Saturday Evening Post for his informal "Cavalry Trilogy": Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), and later Sergeant Rutledge (1960). Bellah, an unrepentant misanthrope once described by his own son as "a fascist, a racist, and a world-class bigot," saw Native Americans as the "red beast in the night." In most of his films adapted from Bellah stories, Ford countered this contemptuous viewpoint by granting Indians a sense of dignity and humanity. In Fort Apache, for example, the Indians are not the villainous, mysterious "Other," but the victims of government-sanctioned scoundrels. Despite their racial disagreements, Ford and Bellah agreed on one thing: the valor and pride of the military. The cavalry was basically honorable and uncomplicated by psychological neuroses or social bugaboos.

Early in the film, Trooper Hanna uses the term "dog robber" to describe his assignment to newly-arriving Lieutenant McQuaid.

Military slang 'dog' was used for enlisted men, or someone who took the best of everything away from the dogs to give to the officers. This likely came from 19th-century term for a contemptible person who stole scraps of leftover food that would otherwise be fed to dogs. Military slang 'dog robber' meant someone whose job is to run errands for an officer, also one whose role is to acquire scarce goods, from military equipment to liquor or perfume, often staying barely within the letter of the law.

This film was the beginning of a long list of box office failures George Hamilton experienced in the '60s. He did not have a box office success of his own until 10 years later playing Evel Knievel (1971).

Many in Hollywood found it odd that a film with such a solid cast, an accomplished writer and director, and three young up-and-comers like George Hamilton, Richard Chamberlain and rocker Duane Eddy was such a box-office failure.

Richard Boone was well-known at the time for his successful TV series Have Gun - Will Travel (1957). Richard Chamberlain himself would become well-known due to his successful TV series, Dr. Kildare (1961), which premiered at the same time this film was released and would run for 5 seasons.