The movie deals with the theft by German spies of the fictional "Process 97", a secret formula which, the narrator tells us, "was crucial to the development of the atomic bomb." The movie was released on September 10, 1945, only a month after the atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan, and barely a week after Japan's formal surrender. While making the film, the actors and Director
Henry Hathaway did not know that the atomic bomb existed, nor that it would be incorporated as a story element in the movie. (None of the actors in the film mentioned the atomic bomb.) However, co-Director and Producer
Louis De Rochemont (who produced the "March of Time" newsreel films) and Narrator
Reed Hadley were involved in producing government films on the development of the atomic bomb. (Hadley was present at the final test of the bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in July, 1945.) After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Hadley and Screenwriter John Monks, Jr. hastily wrote some additional voice-over narration linking "Process 97" to the atomic bomb, and Rochemont inserted it into the picture in time for the film's quick release.
