Marlon Brando was offered the role of Frankie Machine, but Frank Sinatra jumped at the opportunity and was signed before Brando could accept.
Ray Bradbury turned down offers to collaborate on the screenplay, along with the screenplay for Anatomy of a Murder, which Bradbury claimed was $200,000 worth of work. Bradbury said of the refusal "I don't give a goddamn about drugs; it bores the hell out of me. I don't understand the people who take them. So why would I write a screenplay? I'd get a writer's block immediately."
A poster for director Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones is prominently featured on the building across the street from the saloon during the opening scene.
Except for a few exteriors on the RKO backlot, the entire movie was shot on a soundstage
In a conversation with Robert Osborne, Frank Sinatra Jr. said the hands in the tight shots of Frankie's second dealing belong to Milton Berle.
In the original novel, Frankie did kill Louie and hangs himself in a cheap hotel room while on the run from the police. This was changed for the movie and, in fact, the movie plot is very different from that of the original novel.
The Motion Picture Association of America originally refused to issue a seal for this movie because it shows drug addiction. The next year the production code was changed to allow movies to deal with drugs, kidnapping, abortion and prostitution. The film was eventually assigned certificate no. 17011.
The movie's poster was as #14 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.