The film""s screenplay by Carl Foreman [this was his last Hollywood film before blacklist exile to London, soon after his work onHome of the Brave (1949),Champion (1949), andThe Men (1950)], written during a politically-oppressive atmosphere in the early 1950s when McCarthyism and political persecution were rampant, was loosely adapted from aCollier""s MagazinestoryThe Tin Star(by John W.Is the Lord of the Universe in?She notifies Bruce that she will "be back in ten minutes." He thoughtfully responds in a slow drawl about the length of her absence.Unaccustomed to being "spoiled," she curtails her fast pace and asks for her affectionate fiancee to repeat himself:Bruce: Even ten minutes is a long time to be away from you.He first knifed Orrin in the back(# 13 death), and then knifed Big Al in the stomach(# 14 death), and pushed both bodies off the moving truck.A cynical news editor MacWade (George Bancroft) wants the inside scoop for stories published each day in heNew York Mail.