The leads aren't the only people laboring under assumed names in this remake of Dust Be My Destiny (1939). Michael Ames, cast as a newspaper reporter framed for drunk driving who escapes from prison to build a new life with his wife, was actually Tod Andrews, a stage actor who changed his name when Warner Bros. signed him to a contract. He returned to his real name when he left Hollywood to return to the stage, where he starred in Tennessee Williams's Summer and Smoke and took over the title role in Mister Roberts from Henry Fonda. As his wife, Julie Bishop had started out on screen using her birth name, Jacqueline Wells. Wells starred primarily in B pictures like The Black Cat (1934). When Warner Bros. offered her a contract in 1941, they changed her name to Bishop to avoid association with her past films. But despite female leads opposite stars like Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn, she too was confined mostly to B movies like this one. With Western expert D. Ross Lederman directing, the picture zips through its complicated plot quickly enough to allow ample time to showcase the couple's on-screen daughter, played by Patti Hale, who was briefly Warners' answer to Shirley Temple.

By Frank Miller