Based on a true story of a truce between Anglo and Mexican gangs in Los Angeles, California in the early 1950s. The Anglo and Mexican gangs are played by the actual Anglo and Mexican gangs who reached the truce. The gangs had script supervision, went by their own actual names and nicknames, and chose who would play which role.
Like many films produced and directed by Sid Davis, this one was recorded silently. The sound was recorded later and synched to fit the picture. In many cases, editor Arthur Swerdloff cut to another shot to allow him to resync the audio and the video.
The "explosion" effect at the start of the film's credits was achieved by splicing in a few frames of the beginning of a roll of film, which was exposed when loading the camera. Sid Davis and editor Arthur Swerdloff followed that with a cut to a second palm tree, beside the first, without a top. They placed something near the top of the tree to smoke, making it appear as if the gang boys had blown the top off a palm tree.