This film is a remake of the silent film The Racket (1928) which was directed by Lewis Milestone, starred Thomas Meighan and Louis Wolheim and was focused on the exploits of a bootlegger. The Racket (1951) was indirectly based on a play by Bartlett Cormack. (Edward G. Robinson played the racketeer in the original Broadway production.) Both movies were produced by Howard Hughes.
Ray Collins and William Talman costarred in the TV series Perry Mason (1957), as police lieutenant Arthur Tragg and prosecutor Hamilton Burger, respectively.
The film's director John Cromwell was in the Broadway play "The Racket" which opened on November 27, 1927 at the Ambassador Theatre, 219 W. 49th St. and ran for 119 performances until March, 1928. He starred as McQuigg, the role played in the film by Robert Mitchum.
One of the images in the opening credits - of a car driving past a waterfront warehouse, with skyscrapers in the background - is the same shot from the opening credits of The Asphalt Jungle (1950). The shot is location footage of Cincinnati, OH, which is where The Asphalt Jungle (1950) took place.
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