The film was the first of what was meant to be five movies made by Griffith for Columbia Pictures, but he ended up only making two - this and Forbidden Island.

Jonathan Haze later recalled: Chuck had a friend who was a lawyer, Art Sherman, who had met Gordon Stolberg, then vice-president of Columbia Pictures.

Once I did that, they picked out two that would send me on a distant location in Hawaii because they knew I couldn't make a picture out of the promised budgets: $85,000/black and white and $90,000/color.

Forbidden Island was meant to be filmed in ten days, starting 4 November 1957, but Griffith went over schedule.

According to Variety "Columbia noted that Griffith seemed to be having continuing production difficulties" and sent out one of its contract directors, Fred Sears, to direct the second movie, Ghost of the China Sea.