Anecdotes

Dedicated to realism, Bette Davis left the set when the makeup department outfitted her with dainty bandages for the hospital scene following the physical attack on her character by mobsters. She drove to her own doctor and instructed him to bandage her as he would a badly beaten woman. When Davis returned to the studio lot, a gate guard saw her heavy bandages and in a panic called Hal B. Wallis to inform him Davis has been in a serious accident. Returning to the set, she declared, "You shoot me this way, or not at all!" They did.

Humphrey Bogart and Mayo Methot fell in love during production. They were married as soon as he had divorced his second wife, Mary Philips.

Based on the life of gangster Lucky Luciano, who was finally imprisoned when some of the prostitutes who worked in one of his brothels, tired of the beatings and maltreatment meted out by him, informed on him to the police. Luciano was prosecuted by Thomas E. Dewey, who infamously did not beat Harry S. Truman.

The first movie Bette Davis made after her court battle with Warner Brothers to get better movie roles.

Warner Bros. had purchased the film rights to a series in Liberty magazine about Lucky Luciano. The studio had to change the profession of the women from prostitutes to nightclub hostesses to satisfy the Production Code.