Everett Sloane, who plays the kingpin of the underworld in this movie, provided the voice of do-gooder Dick Tracy in the 1961 cartoon shorts based loosely on the Chester Gould comic strip.
After several days of filming, director Bretaigne Windust fell seriously ill and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Humphrey Bogart asked his old friend, director Raoul Walsh, to come in and shoot the picture until Windust recovered. Unfortunately, Windust was more seriously ill than most realized, and his recovery took several months, during which Walsh finished the film. However, Walsh refused to take screen credit for it, saying that the picture was Windust's big break and he wasn't going to take it away from him.