Clare Boothe Luce, then US Ambassador to Italy, prevented the film from being shown at the Venice Film Festival. A Senate committee had decided that the film would not have beneficial effects on the youth of the day.
The film was initially rejected for a UK cinema certificate by the BBFC in March 1955. It was resubmitted again in August where it was then by around 6 minutes to remove uses of threatening dialogue and the entire climactic switchblade scene between Dadier and Artie. It would later be passed completely uncut for video and DVD with a 12 certificate.
The lead "juvenile delinquents" were played by Vic Morrow and Sidney Poitier; in the year of film's release, Morrow was 26 and Poitier was 28.
The original novel was based on author Evan Hunter's own experiences as a teacher in South Bronx. Hunter, who found fame as crime writer Ed McBain, said "I thought I was going to give these kids who want to be motor mechanics Shakespeare and they were going to appreciate it and they weren't buying it. I went home in tears night after night".
This film launched the Rock and Roll era by using "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets as its theme music. The song was chosen for the theme after it was heard among records owned by Peter Ford, the son of the film's star, Glenn Ford. For years it was thought the producer's daughter had discovered the song, but this has since been proven incorrect. "Rock Around the Clock" went to No. 1 around the world and eventually sold an estimated 25 million copies.
To the end of his life, Richard Kiley regularly received collections of old jazz records to make up for the ones his character lost in this picture.