Yordan produced his first film in 1949 (an adaptation of his stage hit "Anna Lucasta", which he adapted again for an all-black remake in 1958), and his second, the stinging boxing drama, "The Harder They Fall" in 1956. He went on to write or produce a number of increasingly top-heavy extravaganzas, including "El Cid" (1961) and "The Battle of the Bulge" (1965).