Tiny Budget

The movie's budget of $813,000 estimated by IMDb was small for what was essentially an "A" product. While Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea were each still top box-office draws in medium budget westerns through the Fifties (and Scott was polled in the top 10 for the first four years of the decade up with John Wayne and James Stewart), I'm guessing for this one with its higher production values they would have settled for a small fee up front and gambled on a percentage take from gross receipts. That same year, 1962, two other oldies, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, took just $30,000 and $60,000 up front for "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and made a bundle from their shares of the box-office take.