Kerry.. This film is a klunker but it has redeeming qualities.. such as Susan Hayward! Also, I love the soundtrack music.

I had never heard (or at least didn't remember) the story of Howard Hughes taking the "hot soil" back to Hollywood...that's pretty depressing info.

From my understanding is that it has never been actually confirmed that the radiation caused the cancer problems with many of the actors and crew on this film, but more than likely it did. I guess most of them ...Susan, John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead , etc. were all smokers too, so this is another common denominator...could be a mix of both...the radiation and smoking...whatever the cause...it's a sad and the tragedy is probably for what this film will be most remembered.