As A Kurosawa Film
Red Beard is the last of 16 films in which Kurosawa worked with Mifune. In the DVD commentary, film scholar Stephen Prince mentions that Mifune's natural beard had to be maintained through the lengthy production, so he was unable to act in other films. The resulting financial stress on Mifune was one of the causes of the breakup between the actor and director.
Teruyo Nogami, who was Kurosawa's long-time script supervisor, wrote in her memoirs that scriptwriter Hideo Oguni told Kurosawa that Mifune's performance had been "all wrong". Although the author of the novel upon which Red Beard was based offered Kurosawa praise on the completed film, Nogami wrote that Oguni's comment caused Kurosawa for the first time to question Mifune's abilities, and Kurosawa never again sought to work with Mifune.
Red Beard is also Kurosawa's last black-and-white film. According to Prince, this is also the only Kurosawa film to feature nudity (in a scene where doctors suture a large wound on a young woman who was still semi-conscious).
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