Trivia / Tough Guys

• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $10 million. Total Gross: $21 million.
• Cast the Expert: The engineer of the Gold Coast Flyer is played by none other than Doyle McCormack, the man who helped to restore and operate the film's locomotive, the iconic Southern Pacific 4449.
• The Other Marty: Eli Wallach had to take over from Adolph Cesar as Elon B. Little when the latter wound up with a severe stroke a few weeks into making the movie.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Two key details involving the climatic train chase—the train ramming into a police car and then having it jump the tracks at the US-Mexico border, had to be implemented carefully since neither of them could involve damaging the SP 4449. For the former, a fake pilot was installed over the real thing so it wouldn't be damaged, while the latter involved the creation of a wooden-mock up and the use of a live-steam model to enact the wreck.
• Those Two Actors: This film marks the fifth and final collaboration between Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.
• What Could Have Been: Adolph Cesar was the first choice for Elon B. Little, but Eli Wallach wound up taking his place when the former actor suffered a stroke during filming and passed away shortly thereafter.