 Producer Dore Schary (qv) had been recruited to rejoin MGM  following his successful run at RKO. This was one of the projects  (and one that RKO boss Howard Hughes (I) (qv) had rejected) that  Schary insisted on making as part of his employment at MGM, over the  protestations of MGM head Louis B. Mayer (qv) who believed that  movie audiences had had their fill of war in general and war films  in particular. Schary got his way. The movie was such a box office  hit that within months he was elected to the board at MGM and  MGM