Although director Lewis Seiler receives screen credit, a May 21, 1941 Hollywood Reporter news item notes that A. Edward Sutherland replaced him, pushing back the start of the film. A second news item dated May 22, 1941 contradicts this, however, and states that Sutherland was assigned to another film, Nine Lives Are Not Enough, which he did direct. According to a pre-production press release included in the file on the film at the AMPAS Library, the film was based on a mystery story by Philip Wylie and B. A. Bergman. The SAB does not credit them, however, and the extent of their contribution to the completed film, if any, has not been determined.