Financed by Standard Oil Company with a budget of $258,000.
After a screen test had been shot of Joseph Boudreaux, but before he had been chosen for the role of The Boy, his uncle gave him a "G.I."--i.e., very short--haircut. The production had to delay shooting until his hair grew back.
The score for this film, by Virgil Thomson, marks the only occasion that film music has won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Composition.
Photographed with new, lighter 35mm cameras used by Nazi propagandists during the war years.
Ranked #5 on Sight & Sound's inaugural 1952 poll of the 10 Greatest Films of All-Time.