After confronting the cops at the club, Raven takes Ellen hostage and flees. He finds a warehouse to hide in, but they must scale a wall. Raven helps Ellen to climb the wall, but he first warns her to stay on top until he gets there and not to run. She then replies, "Who do you think I am, Whirlaway?" Whirlaway is an American champion thoroughbred horse that won the U.S. Triple Crown in 1941, the year before this movie was released.
During production, stars Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were interviewed on set during a live broadcast from Paramount's experimental television station W6XYZ. There were fewer than three hundred television receivers in Los Angeles at the time.
The movie's poster was as #17 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.
The headquarters of the fictional Nitro Chemical Company was the now demolished Richfield Tower, located at 555 S. Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles. The beautiful Art Deco, black and gold terracotta clad building, housed the Richfield Oil Company before it merged with the Atlantic Refining Company in 1966, becoming the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). The building was considered too small after the merger, and the decision to demolish the beloved building was made, despite the protests of Angelenos. It was demolished in 1969, making room for the City National Plaza.
Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were a popular film pairing of similar height, displaying cool magnetism with the undercurrent of sexual tension. Publicists even tried to suggest there had an off-screen romance, but it was only a marketing ploy.
Lake said of Ladd: "Alan was a marvelous person in his simplicity. In so many ways we were kindred spirits. Both of us were very aloof....It enabled us to work together very easily and without friction or temperament."
They ended up making seven movies together: this film, The Glass Key (1942), The Blue Dahlia (1946), and Saigon (1947), as well as appearing as themselves in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), Duffy's Tavern (1945), and Variety Girl (1947).
Lake said of Ladd: "Alan was a marvelous person in his simplicity. In so many ways we were kindred spirits. Both of us were very aloof....It enabled us to work together very easily and without friction or temperament."
They ended up making seven movies together: this film, The Glass Key (1942), The Blue Dahlia (1946), and Saigon (1947), as well as appearing as themselves in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), Duffy's Tavern (1945), and Variety Girl (1947).