After being wounded during a heist in the days after Christmas, bank robber Charlie Blake takes refuge in a remote farm house owned by his older brother Fred, who lives there with wife Elizabeth and 12 year-old son David.

A weak and unhappy man nearly debilitated by respiratory issues, Fred is bullied and beaten into harboring the fugitive and his gang members, the brutal Benjie and moll Edna.

The New York Times called the Sealey work "a pleasant discovery... a tale of terror presented with economy, insight and a surprising amount of technical skill.

[7] Wilde had recently moved into producing, establishing his own company, Theodora, with his then-wife Jean Wallace.

In January 1955 he hired Horton Foote to write the script, and announced he wanted this to be Theodora's second film, putting others (Curly, Lord Byron, Second Act Curtain) on the back burner.

"The weather was a big problem and we had to adjust our schedules to it, jumping from scenes requiring bright sunlight to moody stuff as the sun played hide and seek with the clouds.