Both Henry Fonda and Gregory Peck were first approached to star, but turned down the role. When Robert Mitchum came on board, he also served as executive producer.
Tom Lea, who wrote the novel on which the movie is based, has a cameo as the barber who gives Robert Mitchum a shave.
The film was a critical and commercial failure.
Upon its release, TIME said about it, "But the result is just a crying Shane. All that is truly dramatic is the wonderful country itself" and about Mitchum's performance, "...he sounds like an Aztec exchange student after six terms at C.C.N.Y.". "The rest of the plot is as snarled as a ball of tumbleweed." and "...a western that is more woolly than wild".
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