Janice Rule and Ralph Meeker were cast because they were the leads in a New York production of "Picnic", and Republic Pictures' publicity for the movie attempted to exploit the association with Columbia's film version of the play, Picnic (1955). The poster art-work for this film (showing Rule and Meeker) is nearly identical (even using the same muted color-scheme) to that featuring William Holden and Kim Novak for "Picnic".