 The rights for the novel by Roger Vercel had been acquired by the  German film company Universum Film A.G. (better known as UFA) in  1935. Raoul Ploquin, head of the French branch of UFA, first asked  writer Charles Spaak (qv) to write a scenario based on Vercels  novel. Dissatisfied with the result, André Cayatte (qv) was asked  to take over but the project was quickly shelved. UFA subsequently  sold the rights to Joseph Lucachevitch, director of the company  Societé dExploitation et de Distribution de Films (known as  SEDIF), based in France, who invited Jacques Prévert (qv) to  re