"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie onJanuary 12, 1948, with Victor Mature, Coleen Gray and Richard Widmark reprising their film roles.
"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on October 28, 1948 with Victor Mature, Richard Widmark and Coleen Gray reprising their film roles.
"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 29, 1951 with Victor Mature and Richard Widmark again reprising their film roles.
Because this was filmed on actual locations, a toilet is visible in Victor Mature's jail cell. The sight of toilets was generally banned in films until Alfred Hitchcock managed to break the taboo with Psycho.
Film debut of Richard Widmark.
Film debut of Susan Cabot.
Film debut of Jesse White.
First movie worked on by composer Earle Hagen.
In the beginning montage shots of New York City, a movie theater in Times Square displays a huge ad for Jeanette MacDonald in "The Love Parade." This particular shot was taken at some point from mid-Nov 1929 to Jan 1930, over 17 years before "Kiss of Death" was produced.
Often cited as Victor Mature's best performance.
Originally, Patricia Morison played Victor Mature's wife, who is attacked and raped by a gangster who is supposed to be watching out for her while Mature is in prison, and afterwards commits suicide by sticking her head in the kitchen oven and turning on the gas. Both scenes were cut from the original print at the insistence of the censors, who wanted no depiction of either a rape or a suicide, so although Morison's name appears in the credits, she does not appear in the film at all. Mention is made later in the film about Mature's wife's suicide and a now obscure reference is made by Nettie that the unseen gangster Rizzo contributed to the wife's downfall.
Originally, Nick (Victor Mature) was supposed to die after he allowed Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) to shoot him repeatedly, so Udo could be prosecuted for his murder. However, it was decided that it was too depressing to have Nick die, so in the narration by Nick's wife, Nettie, she says that Nick survives.
The background musical theme at the start and finish of the film is Alfred Newman's "Street Scene," which 20th Century-Fox frequently used for dramas set in New York (Newman was one of their house composers).