Trivia

Anthony Franciosa was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as Polo in the original Broadway production. He was nominated for an Academy Award® for reprising the role in this film. Features Franciosa's only Oscar®-nominated performance.

Anthony Franciosa and his Broadway play co-star Shelley Winters were later married.

The original Broadway stage production opened on Nov. 9, 1955 at the Lyceum Theatre in New York and ran for 398 performances. The original Broadway cast also included the two leads: Ben Gazzara as Johnny, Shelley Winters as Celia; and the two carryovers to the screen production,Henry Silva as Mother and Anthony Franciosa as Polo.

Twentieth Century-Fox bought the rights to Michael V. Gazzo's play shortly after it opened on Broadway. At that time, the PCA forbade the production of any film dealing with narcotics. In December 1956, in partial response to the controversy surrounding Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), the Production Code was revised to allow narcotics as an acceptable subject for film. A Hatful of Rain (1957) was the first of three films produced under the revised Code.

To prepare for the film, Don Murray and director Fred Zinnemann spent time with the NYPD's Narcotics Squad. This gave them access to the lives of real addicts and how they coped.