The film was as controversial as the novel, though this time there was no prosecution for obscenity. Though both book and film were laced throughout with racy innuendo calling into question the issue of marital fidelity, it was the film adaptation that may have been the more alarming, inasmuch as it portrayed a popular uprising, or Marxist insurrection, in the southern United States by millworkers laid off from work and trying to gain control of the factory equipment which their jobs depend on. Philip Yordan was officially given credit for the screenplay, but it was actually by Ben Maddow. Since Maddow was blacklisted for suspected Communist activities during the 1950s Red Scare, working without credit was the only way he could successfully submit screenplays.
When first released, audiences under eighteen years of age were prohibited from viewing what were perceived to be numerous sexy scenes throughout, though in recent decades the film's scandalous reputation has diminished. Though ultimately a box office failure upon first release, the film has frequently been aired on television. Due to a lapse in copyright registration after the bankruptcy of United Artists in the mid-1980s, the film is now in the public domain in the United States
Cast
- Robert Ryan as Ty Ty Walden, a widower
- Aldo Ray as Will Thompson
- Tina Louise as Griselda
- Buddy Hackett as Pluto Swint
- Jack Lord as Buck Walden
- Fay Spain as Darlin' Jill
- Vic Morrow as Shaw Walden
- Helen Westcott as Rosamund
- Lance Fuller as Jim Leslie
- Rex Ingram as Uncle Felix
- Michael Landon as Dave Dawson, the albino
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