"Made on the streets of New York, crime film has authentic flavor." (Life) This flavor was something that not many movies had at that time. In addition, the producers took advantage of the location and used Broadway actors and people from the streets for supporting roles in the film. For instance, they hired students from a convent that was used in a scene, as extras throughout the film. There is a scene where the main character, Nick Bianco, has to take a railroad coach during the day to the Sing Sing prison and they rented an authentic train that run up to the Hudson between regularly scheduled times for it. When filming in the prison, real convicts had to be cleared out of the rooms used for filming because it was illegal to film or take photographs of them. So when people went to saw the movie they saw the real thing, they recognized the places they were seeing. Therefore adding authenticity to the suspense created throughout the film. People would get more into the story with the actual places they could even know. Twentieth Century Fox had started experimenting in a couple of movies, like Boomerang and The House on 92nd Street, by using real locations and it had worked so far. As Time Magazine reads, "In making this kind of realistic "locale" movie, 20 Century-Fox has been the leader." Of course not only the settings make a movie. It takes a good director to take a cast and camera crew, put them together and make it work. .
The movie wouldn't have worked the same without a good director and that was Henry Hathaway. He had done semi-documentary films before with two of his previous films: The House on 92nd Street and 13 Rue Madeleine. A reviewer said, "Though those were good this one tops them in realism, suspense and dramatic interest." (Variety) So as a filmmaker with experience in filming on location he was a perfect choice for the job. Hathaway does an excellent job in setting the mood and getting the most out of his cast and crew.
