Production began in late January 1953 and was completed on 2 March. Filming took place partly at Donner Lake, near Truckee, California in the Sierra Nevada range. The California Department of Forestry cut down trees in that area to make aircraft runways in the four-foot deep snow. Some background shooting also took place in San Francisco. Besides writing the screenplay, Gann, who was a commercial pilot for Transocean Airlines, served as the film's technical director and also piloted a C-47 for the second unit.