The real John Paul Jones' actual name was John Paul. He added the name "Jones" to avoid prosecution when he was accused of killing a seaman over a dispute of wages.
This was the first of many large-scale movies that producer Samuel Bronston would make in Spain. He had discovered that several American industrial concerns had had money frozen in Spain by the Francisco Franco government and he was able to persuade them to use it to finance filmmaking based in the country; the Du Pont chemical company put up the money for this film.
This was Charles Coburn's final acting role in a film before his death on August 30, 1961, at the age of 84. However, he did subsequently appear briefly as himself the following year in "Pepe".
This would be the last time Max Steiner would compose a score for a film featuring Bette Davis. He had written musical scores for many of her movies, including "Now, Voyager" (1942), which had won him an Oscar, and had been her favorite composer.