Humphrey Bogart was given top billing, in part, to further humiliate Kay Francis, whose $200,000 annual salary and declining popularity had become a sore spot for Warner boss Jack L. Warner. Aware of the motives, Bogie was unhappy that he was being used as a pawn in order to humiliate Francis in front of the public that had once admired her. After years of struggling as a relatively-unknown actor in B-films, he considered achieving his second top billing this way to be more salt in the wound. (He had been top billed in Black Legion two years earlier.)
The production of the film had been a trying one for the film's two stars, both of whom resented some of the shenanigans pulled by Jack L. Warner in attempts to get Kay Francis to walk out on her contract. In order to get back at some of the studio elites, Humphrey Bogart shot a trailer for the film where he claimed "I'm King of the Underworld and nobody is better than I am . . ." and then ad-libbed the final line, "and that goes for you, too, Jack Warner."
Warner in-house-director Lewis Seiler reportedly took very little interest in the making of the film. According to various cast members, he would show up to set and start blocking scenes without having read the part of the script that was to be shot on that day.
Kay Francis's popularity had dipped by 1939, but she still commanded a pricey payday for her films ($200,000 annual salary). Studio head Jack L. Warner schemed to get Francis to break her long-term contract, thus saving his studio her hefty salary, by casting her in this film. Warner was convinced that Francis would refuse to act in a lurid crime drama and breach contract. Much to his chagrin, Francis accepted the role and remarked that she would "mop the sound stages" as long as she was paid her fee.
Kay Francis and Humphrey Bogart developed a cordial working relationship on set and reportedly got along quite well.
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