The American film debut of Rose Stradner. An Austrian by birth, she was a stage and film actress in Europe before escaping the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1936. Louis B. Mayer brought her to Hollywood, but her marriage to Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1939 essentially put her career on hold. She appeared in only two more films, Blind Alley (1939) and The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), and on TV in Reign of Terror (1953). Stresses in her marriage led to alcoholism and depression, and to suicide in 1958.
One of the few films - and quite possibly the only one - where James Stewart sports a groomed mustache. He appears unshaven in many films (especially westerns) but in the latter part of this one he is clean shaven except for the upper lip.
Many actors listed in studio records as appearing in this film are not seen in the final print. These are, with their character names: Ernie Alexander, Nick Copeland and Frank Marlowe (Reporters), William Arnold, Arthur Howard, Mitchell Ingraham, Broderick O'Farrell and Cyril Ring (Fathers), Cy Kendall and Pierre Watkin (Editors), Eddie Marr (Frankie File), Walter Miller, (Mike Kile) and Paul Sutton (George Kile).
Studio records show, after Luise Rainer, Louis B. Mayer tried to borrow actress Anna Sten from Samuel Goldwyn for the lead actress in The Last Gangster (1937), however, the deal fell through and the role went to Rose Stradner.