Kubrick Pictures, before making this  film. Kubrick and Harris bought the rights to the  Lionel White (qv) pulp novel "The Snatch" for $10,000, but found  out that the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association  (MPPDA) Code would not allow movies to be made about the kidnapping  of children, the premise of Whites potboiler. White subsequently  swapped the rights to his novel "Clean Break" for "The Snatch" to  get them out of the predicament. United Artists had considered  buying "Clean Break" as a vehicle for Frank Sinatra (qv). "The  Snatch" later was made into  _Night of the Following Day, The (1968)_ (qv) in the more permissive  1960s, when the MPPDA Code had been superseded by the ratings  system.