Sam Peckinpah said that Olivia De Havilland was not convincing in the final sequence. So he asked the camera man to continue shooting after he - Peckinpah - told the crew to "Cut" and then told De Havilland that she was a nasty actress. Peckinpah then took advantage of De Havilland's reaction, to put the scene in the can. At last, Peckinpah got his take, as he wanted.
Katherine Anne Porter greatly admired this TV movie based on her novella and praised director Sam Peckinpah for his work. She expressed sadness that he had not directed the film version of her novel "Ship Of Fools", which had appeared the previous year and which she had strongly disliked.
L.Q. Jones acted for director Sam Peckinpah in five other films, Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) (also with Jason Robards) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973).
Sam Peckinpah was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television by the Directors Guild of America, as well as a Writers Guild of America Award for TV: Best Written Dramatic Anthology. These acknowledgements led to the restarting of his career after having been blacklisted.
Ben Johnson would act for director Sam Peckinpah in three more films, The Wild Bunch (1969), Junior Bonner (1972) and The Getaway (1972).