This low-budget thriller, boosted by Bela Lugosi, was one of the biggest successes for the poverty row Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). After the war, the studio tried to recapture this success by producing an in-name-only sequel, Devil Bat's Daughter (1946), and a virtual shot-by-shot remake, The Flying Serpent (1946).
Because it was produced by the "poverty row" studio PRC, which failed to renew its copyright, the film is now a public domain title. This explains why it is frequently run on late-night TV, and is available on home video from multiple distributors, often of very poor quality.
His role as editor Joe McGinty provided what is now the most famous credited on-screen role for Arthur Q. Bryan. If his voice sounds familiar, it s because he was the original voice of Elmer Fudd for Warner Bros.
This film received its first documented telecasts in New York City Wednesday 4 August 1948 on WCBS (Channel 2), in Washington DC Wednesday 30 March 1949 on WMAL (Channel 7), in Albuquerque Saturday 20 August 1949 on KOB (Channel 4), in Chicago Wednesday 5 October 1949 on WGN (Channel 9), and in Los Angeles Thursday 23 March 1950 on KTLA (Channel 5).
There's quite an age difference between Dave O'Brien and Donald Kerr (reporter Johnny Layton and sidekick/photographer "One-Shot" Maguire). O'Brien was just 28 and Kerr was 49, although he sure doesn't look that old! Neither man was ever a big star although they always had plenty of work playing bit parts--and in Kerr's case, nearly always uncredited. Example: Kerr was in 29 movies in 1940 alone, all but 2 or 3 in uncredited bit parts. O'Brien is better known for his role in the whacky 1936 "Reefer Madness" but he did a nice job in the much more serious 1945 feature about a modest war hero "The Man Who Walked Alone. And Kerr is better known as silly Happy Hapgood, reporter, who accidentally accompanies Flash Gordon to Mars in a 1938 serial.