The picture was referred to as The Riot in an 18 Dec 1967 DV news item, announcing it as director Buzz Kulik’s next project for Paramount Pictures. The 13 Nov 1968 Var later stated that the film would conclude Kulik’s “long-term nonexclusive contract” with the studio.
       According to a 15 Mar 1968DV brief, Kulik wanted screenwriter James Poe to play a prison warden in the film. The following month, a 24 Apr 1968 DV brief reported that real-life warden Frank A. Eyman would make his feature film acting debut in the role of the warden. Eyman worked at the Arizona Penitentiary, where shooting was set to take place. Some 600 personnel and inmates were recruited to appear in the film, and the 9 Dec 1968 LAT claimed that convicts ultimately played all but eight of the roles, for which they received Screen Actors Guild (SAG) salaries.
       A production chart in the 3 May 1968 DV noted that principal photography began earlier that week, on 29 Apr 1968. Six weeks of filming at the Arizona State Penitentiary were scheduled. In advance of the shoot, producer William Castle had 200 copies of The Riot, Frank Elli’s 1967 book upon which the film was based, distributed among the 1,700 inmates, according to the 19 Apr 1968 DV. Frank A. Eyman reportedly okayed the gift, stating, “We all feel that if everyone in the place knows what we’re doing there, we’ll get less trouble and more cooperation.” Novelist Elli was an ex-convict, himself, who’d spent twenty years in prison, according to the 30 Jan 1969 LAT review of the film.
       During production, lead actor and former Cleveland Browns running back, Jim Brown, was arrested on two assault charges, following an alleged attack against model Eva Marie Bohn-Chin and a Los Angeles, CA, sheriff’s deputy. An article in the 11 Jun 1968 LAT reported that Brown had been released on bail and that Deputy District Attorney Phillips Mueller had determined there was insufficient evidence to hold him for a trial.
       Filming was completed by 20 Jun 1968, as indicated in that day’s Los Angeles Sentinel. A preview screening was held several months later, during the first week of Dec 1968, at the Arizona State Penitentiary. It was attended by some 400 inmates, other cast members, and members of the press, as noted in the 9 Dec 1968 LAT. Theatrical release followed in New York City on 15 Jan 1969, and in Los Angeles on 29 Jan 1969.
       Various contemporary sources, including the 9 Apr 1968 DV, claimed that crew member Leonard Smith was the first African American dialog coach to be used “on a major film.”