The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Anne Baxter, Walter Huston, Dean Jagger and Walter Brennan; and two Oscar nominees: Erich von Stroheim and Ann Harding.
This is one of the films deemed subversive" by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in October 1947. The committee decided that, even though Russia was an ally of the US against Nazi Germany in World War II--when this film was made--the movie's sympathetic portrayal of Russian peasants and guerrillas who were fighting off Nazi forces was an endorsement of Communism.
Some television broadcasts of the film list the title as "Armored Attack". During the opening credits for that version, there is a special listing that states it is "An adaptation of the film, The North Star". Interestingly, the film is listed as NORTH STAR in published, online and onscreen program guides.
In the severely re-edited, re-titled re-release, all references to the Russian nationality of the participants in the original story was either eliminated or obscured.
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