[7][8] Following his enormously successful romance-crime novel The Postman Always Rings Twice in 1934, Cain sought to capitalize on the notoriety of the book by quickly writing serials for popular literary journals.

[10][11] Cain acknowledged as much when he wrote in 1943 "These novels, thought written fairly recently, really belong to the depression, rather than the war, and make interesting footnotes to that [earlier] era.

"[12] In a 1943 Time magazine review of Three of a Kind, a critic noted "the rancid air of authenticity which Cain obtains by screwing down his competent microscope on a drop of that social seepage which discharges daily into U. S. tabloids and criminal courts.

All the major studios had rejected the scenario, a "blueprint for murder" concerning an adulterous pair who execute a cold-blooded killing for profit.

"[20] When Cain’s agent, Harold Norling Swanson, promoted Three of a Kind throughout the Hollywood establishment, Austrian-American film director-producer Billy Wilder insisted that Paramount Studios acquire the rights.