Trivia

The wife of producer Mark Hellinger, Gladys Glad, a former showgirl for Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., was responsible for getting this film made. Hellinger had brought home a large stack of scripts that he was to read for filming consideration. He had leafed through the script and read the summary, but felt that "nobody would pay money to see a bunch of truck drivers." His wife read this script, liked it, and pressured Hellinger to read it. Reluctantly, he did, the film eventually got made, and it became the sleeper hit of the year for Warners. It was made for an estimated $400,000 and grossed more than $4 million. (Source: Book "The Mark Hellinger Story" by Jim Bishop, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1952)

Alan Hale wears a gold pinkie ring in this movie. Some 23 years, later this same ring can be seen on the pinkie of his son Alan Hale Jr. while he was playing the Skipper on L'île aux naufragés (1964). After his father's death, Hale Jr. wore this ring for the rest of his life in memory of his father, with whom he was very close.

According to the special feature about this film on the DVD release, all scenes were filmed in sequence.

George Raft was instrumental in recommending Ida Lupino for the part of Lana and her brilliant rendition of the jealousy-deranged, glamorous wife decked in a king's ransom of jewels and furs turned out to be her first important film role.

Raft also had a hand in helping Humphrey Bogart's career take off. Though Bogart played a secondary role in Une femme dangereuse (1940) as the hangdog married brother to Raft's savvy lady killer, that understated role would soon lead to higher profile work.

Raft, who didn't want to die in another picture, passed on the starring role in Walsh's next picture, La Grande Évasion (1941), and instead, recommended Bogart for the film - a part that made Bogie into a major star.

The pinball machine played by Irish at Mandel's Diner is "Big Six," manufactured by J.H. Keeney and Company of Chicago in 1939.