The legend of the ghost ship, the Mary Celeste, found adrift in 1872, might have inspired some of the plot line. Many theories have been proposed about what happened, but to this day, no one really knows her true story.
Busy songwriter and musician Hoagy Carmichael plays the savvy cab driver. This was his second acting role, after his role in Le Port de l'angoisse (1944). He would appear the next year in Les Plus Belles Années de notre vie (1946) as Butch, the owner of a local tavern.
Signe Hasso had been brought to the U.S. from Sweden under a two-year contract with RKO, but she made no films for the studio during that period, and then she signed with MGM. A couple of years later, RKO borrowed her from MGM for this film.
According to TCM's Eddie Muller, this film was a surprise hit for RKO in 1945 and revived the career of George Raft.
The little toy with the propeller that Celestial plays with is a "gee-haw whammy diddle", or it's also known as a "hoodoo stick" or a "voodoo stick".