[1] The screenplay is based on real life experiences of Time magazine reporter Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., who co-wrote the script.

[2] Newspaper editor and co-owner Jim Austin and his wife are fleeing Kennington, where they live and work, so that he may testify before a U.S. Senate Special Committee investigating crime in interstate commerce.

Austin began investigating bookmaking in town after the suspicious death of private detective Clyde Nelson, who discovered police complicity with illegal gambling while working a divorce case for a Mrs. Sirak.

[3] The television broadcast of the hearings attracted huge public interest and educated a broad audience about the issues of municipal corruption and organized crime.

The tremendous success of the broadcast led to the production of a whole cycle of "exposé" crime films dealing with the dismantling of complex criminal organizations by law enforcement.