Gary Cooper was originally announced for the role of Ed Beaumont, but he had a contract dispute with Paramount and George Raft replaced him.
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since; its earliest documented telecast took place in Omaha 30 April 1959 on KETV (Channel 7).
Rosalind Keith was appearing in the play "Small Miracle" at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood when she was signed by Paramount for this film.
Why not the 1935 original is not classified a film noir? The plot is the same and most of the lines are almost the same, only the name of the actors changed. Before the 70ths, nobody knew about the world film noir, those films made in the 40, 50, 60 were labeled as "detectives films" It can be checked on the LAURA's commentary track. Many director of noir movies died before they learned the expression "noir movies".