Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo recreated their roles for a 1/21/52 broadcast of radio's "Lux Theater".
Russell Hunter screen-tested for this project.
John Witty screen-tested For Lt. Radot (Patrick Young). Jean Serret screen tested For The French Commandant (Eugene Deckers)
Virginia Mayo was only cast after a number of high-profile British actresses were either not available or interested.
Alexander Davion's role was curtailed because of a schedule clash with another project so his scenes were given to various other actors.
David Garth worked on screen tests for this project.
Feature-film debut of Jack Watson.
James Costa was cast as Hernandez and filmed a number of scenes, but was fired because of his salary demands and because the production team were displeased with his acting.
The movie is based on three "Hornblower" novels: ""Beat To Quarters", "Ship Of The Line" and "Flying Colours." These were all written in 1938 and were the first books of the series.
The rights to the novel were originally acquired by Warners with Errol Flynn in mind, but after the financial failure of Adventures of Don Juan and growing difficulties with the actor, he was not cast. Warners was already building up Burt Lancaster as its new swashbuckler, but the role of a British sea captain seemed out of his range, so Gregory Peck was ultimately cast.
To save costs, the Hispaniola from Treasure Island was reused and renamed Lydia but now the ship was rocked instead of the horizon, this caused many problems due to the combined weight of ship's crew and equipment.