The scenes of Robert Stack showing Gilbert Roland how to skeet shoot parallel true life. In college, Stack was not interested in team sports, and he took up skeet shooting. In 1935, he came in second in the National Skeet Shooting Championship held in Cleveland, and in 1936 his five-man team broke the standing record at the National Skeet Championships held in St. Louis. In 1937, he was the U.S. 20-gauge champion skeet marksman and held the record for more than 350 consecutive hits. He also served as a gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy for more than three years during World War II and, among other decorations, was awarded the "Expert Rifle" and "Expert Pistol" ribbons.
A Mexican stunt man was killed by a bull while filming a bullfighting sequence.
Patricia McCormick was the first American female bullfighter. Her bravery led to this film being made.
According to director Budd Boetticher in "Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That" (2006), John Ford, at producer John Wayne's insistence, came in and edited out 40 minutes from the film (largely showing more set pieces with bullfighting). He wasn't happy with the re-edit, even though he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing: Motion Picture Story. He and Ford became good friends later in life.