Both stars of this film were struggling to revive their careers after seeing their Hollywood hopes collapse in the early 1950s. Larry Parks had been blacklisted because of former Communist associations, while Constance Smith had simply been dropped from a lucrative Twentieth Century-Fox contract after failing to make much impression in her American films, which had been box-office flops. Neither, however, was able to resurrect a career; Parks made only one more film, seven years later.
A very loose and updated adaptation of "Never Come Back", a 1941 novel by John Mair which won considerable critical acclaim and was praised by George Orwell, among others. The novel concerns Nazi spies in Britain just as the Second World War is about to start; this film replaces them with a counterfeit currency gang. "Never Come Back" was Mair's only novel; he was killed the year after it was published in an RAF training accident, aged 29.
In March 1958 United Artists distributed this (under the title "Cross-Up") in the US on a double bill with L'odyssée du sous-marin Nerka (1958) starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster.
Larry Parks was blacklisted and the only film work he was able to secure following Love Is Better Than Ever (1952) is this British "B" picture.
At about 1 hour, 16 mins, the car overturns and catches fire. This is the same footage as used in Le crime ne paie pas (1953). Note that the car that burns is not the nice Jaguar they were driving. The burning car doesn't have the sleek curves of a Jag and the windows are nothing like the ones on the car we had just seen. They obviously weren't going to set fire to a nice Jaguar.
Actually, the whole car chase sequence that leads up to the crash is the same in both films with police car FNB 578 chasing Jaguar LXP 202. Notice the buildings, particularly as they take corners.
Actually, the whole car chase sequence that leads up to the crash is the same in both films with police car FNB 578 chasing Jaguar LXP 202. Notice the buildings, particularly as they take corners.