It only took Warner Bros. seven years to remake their classic gangster film Dr. Socrates (1935) twice. The first version starred Paul Muni as a small-town doctor kidnapped by gangsters to save one of them who's been critically wounded during a bank robbery. The story underwent a sex change in 1939, with doctor Kay Francis facing down Humphrey Bogart as the King of the Underworld. For this new version, it was back to a male doctor with Regis Toomey trying to escape from Howard da Silva. This third version takes a decidedly lighter touch. Released through Warner's B unit, it features mostly character players. Toomey was a Warner's stalwart through the '30s, though he usually only played leads in B movies. In A pictures he was most often the other man who loses the leading lady. After testing for the role of Scarlett O'Hara, Adele Longmire made her screen debut as the injured man's sister. She and da Silva had both appeared on Broadway in Abe Lincoln in Illinois and Elmer Rice's Two on an Island, which brought them offers from Warner Bros. She returned to the stage right after this picture, but da Silva continued in films until 1951, when his career was sidetracked by the blacklist.

By Frank Miller