In director Michael Powell's autobiography, 'A Life in Film', he says he received a letter from Deborah Kerr while she was filming 'The Hucksters'. It said the movie included a newcomer named Ava Gardner who almost stole the show from her - "but not quite."
MGM had paid close to $200,000 for the motion picture rights to Frederic Wakeman's national bestselling novel, of which the film is based on.
The character portrayed by Sydney Greenstreet was allegedly based on the CEO of American Tobacco in the 1940's, whose relentless slogans were drilled into the radio audience: "LS/MFT: Yes, Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco" and,when the cigarette package changed from forest green to white, in order to appeal to women, "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war!"
The novel upon which this film is based was itself inspired by a real-life exposé in "The Saturday Evening Post". The four-part article, entitled "The Star Spangled Octopus," was a look at how the talent and promotional agency MCA had managed to monopolize most areas of popular entertainment by the mid-1940s. In the novel, the character of Dave Lash is based directly on MCA founder and president Jules C. Stein and his right-hand-man is based on Lew Wasserman. The movie version retains these elements of the book's form but is otherwise fairly sanitized. The one exception: the exterior of the fictional agency Talent Ltd. is shown once during the movie - and the building in the shot is unmistakably MCA's Beverly Hills headquarters.
This picture marked the American film debut of British actress Deborah Kerr.