Writer, Producer, and Director Don Boyd grew up in Kenya in the midst of the Mau Mau rebellion, so had some idea of what it was like to be a colonial in tumultuous times.
Many critics leveled accusations at Writer, Producer, and Director Don Boyd, that he had simply ripped off William Wyler's The Letter (1940). Boyd refuted these claims, saying he had never even seen Wyler's movie.
Bryan Forbes was a staunch defender of this movie, later joking that it cost him good reviews for his subsequent own movies. The British film industry seemed to be in terminal decline at the time of this movie's production, and Forbes felt it was unfair to take potshots at a young director trying to get ahead when the odds were so heavily stacked against him.
Judi Bowker had grown up in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and showed up for her audition in the kind of outfit a colonial woman of that era would have worn. Naturally, she got the part.