Based on the short story "This Guy Gideon" by Don 'Red' Barry. Producer/director Roy Del Ruth bought the rights to that story, but hated the uncommercial title. So he also bought the rights to Weldon Reeder's short story "Red Light" simply because he liked the title better.
The sharp-looking car Johnny is driving when he gives the cops the slip by having one of his trucks block them in is a 1948 Packard Custom Eight Convertible. The cops who are after him are driving a 1941 Ford Sedan. No contest.
In Los Angeles, Raft goes backstage at a show called Ken Murray's Blackouts to talk to Murray. He was a real person, and the show was real as well. A combination of variety and burlesque, it was finishing a seven-year run at the El Capitan theatre at the time the movie was released.
The story was written by actor Donald 'Red' Barry. He played Red Ryder in Republic serials, where he got the nickname Red. He was busy actor in westerns and playing other tough guys.
Composer Dimitri Tiomkin reused some of his scoring from It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - when George Bailey comes back renewed from being shown a vision of if he'd never been born - for the denouement of this film.