La cible vivante (1945) marked the debut of William Wilder as a motion picture producer. Wilder, who was sometimes credited as W. Lee Wilder on his later films, was an "eastern industrialist," according to a September 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item, and was the brother of director Billy Wilder.
Billy Wilder rarely talked about his brother, and when he did the theme was always the same: "A dull son of a bitch," Billy said of him in 1975. Years later he called him "a fool" who thought he could make it in Hollywood simply because his more famous brother had.
Billy Wilder rarely talked about his brother, and when he did the theme was always the same: "A dull son of a bitch," Billy said of him in 1975. Years later he called him "a fool" who thought he could make it in Hollywood simply because his more famous brother had.
Erich von Stroheim and Anthony Mann clashed during production of this movie, and Mann later said, "He drove me mad. He was a genius. I'm not a genius, I'm a worker." The film reveals Mann beginning to sense how to elevate an ordinary story through expressionistic directing choices. Five movies later, he would score his first enduring classic with La brigade du suicide (1947).
La cible vivante (1945) was based on the short story "Big Shot" by Vicki Baum in Collier's (19 Sep 1936).
The working titles of the film were Dead Pigeon and Strange Affair.