James Whitmore debuted in this film in Chicago, Illinois and on television on the same day - March 20, 1949 - in the Philco Television Playhouse hour-long murder drama "Dinner at Antoine's," starring Steve Cochran, also in his television debut.
Based on the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigators who took down Al Capone after the Police and F.B.I. were unable to make anything stick because of his ability to pay off or intimidate any witnesses that came forward - just like in this movie. The character of Frank Warren (Glenn Ford) represents real-life agent Frank J. Wilson, the lead agent who finally took down Capone, and the author of the autobiography "Undercover Man" that was serialized in Collier's magazine in 1947 and is the basis for this film.
Frank and George are shown arriving at an airport on an United Airlines Douglas DC-4, registration N30062, originally made in 1944 as a C-54 transport for the U.S. Army Air Force. In 1955, this aircraft flying as United Flight 409 from Denver, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah, crashed near Medicine Bow Peak, Wyoming with the loss of all 66 souls aboard.
Just exactly where this story takes place is never made clear, nor the name of the city mentioned by anyone; there are plenty of obvious Los Angeles exteriors, the cars carry California license plates and the young married couple have a scene at the beach. But the tenement district scenes and street vendors are strictly the New York City back lot. Ford and Foch mention Washington (supposedly DC) as their home, but she is in a small town in "Dairyland USA" when he visits her. (It's her parents' home and he mentions that not everyone is lucky enough to have in-laws with parents living close by), apparently a one-day train ride from the scene of the action.
Final film of Stella Razeto.
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