The first Filipino film to be acclaimed at an international film festival (Venice). It was released worldwide. It was praised by noted American film critic James Agee.
The prints of this film was found in Venice Film Festival vaults and was restored at L'Immagine Ritrovata. On 6 September 2012, the film was screened in the festival as a special retrospective of cinema classics among others.
Official submission of the Philippines for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 26th Academy Awards in 1954.
As seen in the original posters, the name of Lou Salvador was listed as co-director as a concession to the actor for agreeing to shave his head for his villain role as Burchou. Despite this, Conde had the full control in directing the film and Salvador didn't have a single directional input towards the film. New re-releases of the film now remove Salvador's directional credit and only bear Conde's name in the posters.