This was the final film Joan Crawford made under her long-term contract with MGM, where she had been for the past eighteen years. Frustrated at being continuously offered what she considered second rate scripts, shortly after completing this, Crawford chose to buy out her studio contract (at great personal expense) and continue her career elsewhere. It was nearly two years later that she appeared in her next leading role, Mildred Pierce (1945) at Warner Brothers, for which she won the 1945 Academy Award as Best Actress.
Joan Crawford always said she wished Alfred Hitchcock had directed this film, and indeed, the film contains many "Hitchcockian" touches, including mistaken identity, music as a plot cue, innocents recruited to do dangerous tasks.
Female bit players were not allowed to wear make-up in scenes that took place in Germany, as Adolf Hitler had banned it in 1933.
Actor Conrad Veidt's final film before his death from a heart attack on 3 April 1943, two months after the end of production on this picture. This was his second film with Joan Crawford, having appeared alongside her two years before in A Woman's Face (1941).
In December 1941, William Powell was announced as the male lead in the picture, and in July 1942, Myrna Loy was announced as his co-star. According to Hollywood Reporter, MGM cast the popular starring team in an attempt to break them out of their "Thin Man" mold. After Loy left MGM in October 1942, however, Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford were cast in the leads.
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