Trivia

Fritz Lang did not like the title and thought it redundant. "What other kind of desire is there?" is his reported comment.

Director Fritz Lang had desperately wanted Peter Lorre to play Jeff Warren, but Lang had treated Lorre so abusively during the making of M (1931) that the actor refused. Marlon Brando also rejected the role of Jeff Warren, saying "I cannot believe that the man who gave us the über dark Mabuse, the pathetic child murderer in M and the futuristic look at society, Metropolis (1927), would stoop to hustling such crap."

The story, "La Bete Humaine" by Émile Zola, had been filmed twice before: The Human Beast (1938), directed by Jean Renoir, and Die Bestie im Menschen (1921), starring Ilka Grüning. Then, in 1957, an Argentine production was filmed, La bestia humana (1957).

Upon his return from Japan after the Korean War, veteran Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford) brings Ellen Simmons a kimono and jokingly refers to the Broadway hit of the time, "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (1953-56). Ford would star in the screen version two years later: The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956).

The extensive rail yard and shops seen in this film were abandoned in 1980 after the railroad's bankruptcy. As of 2021, all of the shops, buildings, and even the roundhouse are gone or have collapsed into rubble. All that remains is a small switching yard and sidings. The grain elevators, seen in the panning shot of Carl Buckley arriving home, are still standing.