John Wayne was suffering from lung cancer during filming (although he didn't know it at the time). He already had a chronic cough, and after the near fatal fire scene accident he started spitting up spots of blood. He continued to chain smoke cigarettes, still unaware of the real cause. The intense fire stunt seemed to inflame his condition.
It was speculated that at the time this film was made, Rita Hayworth may have already been suffering the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. She was often late and had trouble remembering her lines and it was reported she was often drunk and abusive to those on the set. John Wayne had previously looked forward to working with her, but it was said he came to despise her behaviour.
Whilst filming a scene where the main tent catches fire, John Wayne was almost killed when the set collapsed. As he was "fighting" the fire, Wayne was to be cued by the assistant director when to leave before the set was to collapse in flames. Either Wayne didn't hear the cue, or the a.d. mistimed it (it was never determined which), but the flaming set began to collapse before Wayne got out. He escaped with just a few seconds to spare before the entire set would have fallen down on top of him.
David Niven was originally cast as Cap Carson, but left after one of the earlier script rewrites, complaining that it was becoming simply "a typical John Wayne film" and that his role had become smaller. Lloyd Nolan replaced him.
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