 John Ford (I) (qv) was the original director of the film, but  after seeing dailies Darryl F. Zanuck (qv) felt Ford wasnt  connecting with the material. Zanuck called Elia Kazan (qv) in New  York and asked him to take over the film. Kazan felt he owed Zanuck  for his film career, and agreed to do the movie without even looking  at the script. He flew to Los Angeles and started filming the next  Monday.