Technical advisor for the film was Sgt. Marty Wynn of the Los Angeles Police Dept. During the course of shooting, he fell into conversation with Jack Webb, then the star of radio's "Jeff Regan, Private Investigator", who had a small part in the film. Wynn suggested that Webb do a radio series based on actual police files. Thus was born the idea for "Dragnet," which debuted on NBC radio about four months after this film was released.
Loosely based on the real-life 1946 crime spree of Erwin "Machine Gun" Walker (1917-2008). Unlike the character in the film, Walker was captured, tried, and sentenced to death for first-degree murder. On 4/14/1949, two days before his scheduled execution, Walker attempted suicide, and the execution was postponed. A psychiatric board pronounced him insane, and he was sent to the Mendocino State Hospital for the next 12 years. Declared sane again in 1961, his sentence was commuted by the governor to life without parole. From 1970-74,he filed several motions to appeal his case, twice making it to the California Supreme Court. The second time, the court vacated the "without parole" part of his sentence. Walker applied for, and was granted, parole in 1974. He then legally changed his name and worked as a chemist. He died in 2008.
This was a historical film in that it was the first to use the Los Angeles underground sewer and storm-drain system and its series of canals and tunnels as a backdrop.
The shots of two patrol cars pulling into the police station would be reused in The Big Combo (1955). He Walked by Night (1948) and "The Big Combo" were shot by the same cinematographer, John Alton.
The subterranean chase scenes convinced a Warner Bros. executive to use the storm drain tunnels under Los Angeles for the climactic scenes in Them! (1954). That film's original story idea to have the giant ants invade New York City's subway system was scuttled partly due to budget constraints, but mainly because of the horrified reaction of NYC transportation secretary William J. Daley to the suggestion.
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