Filming took place between January and March of 1952 in Cusco and the cloud forest under the direction of American Ken Krippene and the photographic supervision of German Hans Helzig. The film was never released due to technical deficiencies that made its exhibition impossible. The filming of this movie gave rise to a story that fascinated Lima's journalists in the 1950s: the romance between John Wayne—who had come to the country in search of locations for a personal project—and the star of Lila Tihi's Emeralds, Peruvian Pilar Pallete, which culminated in marriage.