Anecdotes

This film features the iconic Bradbury Building at 304 S. Broadway as the location of Griff Marat's office. Out of his office window can be seen the old Hall of Records Building at 220 N. Broadway (demolished 1973), which is about 0.4 miles away.

Cornel Wilde and Patricia Knight were married at the time this film was made. They would divorce in 1951.

In Samuel Fuller's original script, the film ended with a violent rebellion by Marat against the system that kept him and Marsh apart. The studio had Le Grand National (1944) scriptwriter Helen Deutsch step in to pen a soft-suds rewrite.

In many of Sam Fuller's screenplays he features a main character named "Griff", including in Police spéciale (1964), Le Baron de l'Arizona (1950), La maison de bambou (1955), 40 Tueurs (1957), and Au-delà de la gloire (1980). Griff was the name of a soldier Fuller served with in the U.S. Army and who was killed overseas during World War 2.

The reaction of the two youngsters to meeting a real live 'bleached' blonde was fairly typical. Peroxide blonde hair had usually been relegated to film stars and celebrities, the stuff of pin up girls and movie magazines...or of fast (bad) girls. And it was a difficult, often risky process to do. The mid century would bring new style innovation in hairstyles, as well, with hair coloring becoming easier and less costly to obtain. A popular ad line from Clairol at the time even asked, is it true blondes have more fun.