 The scene where Paul Picerni (I) (qv) is rescued from the  guillotine by Frank Lovejoy (qv) seconds before the blade came  down was filmed in one take, using a real guillotine blade. Picerni  and director André De Toth (qv) got into a heated argument when  Picerni, on advice from the films stuntmen, refused to do the scene  as too dangerous (a prop man was to hold up the blade off camera and  tell the actors when he dropped it so they could yank Picerni away).  De Toth threw him off the picture, but several days later, on orders  from studio head Jack L. Warner (qv), De Toth recalled him, and  had the prop department modify the guillotine to make it less  dangerous. After examining the guillotine, Picerni said he would do  one take and no more, which is exactly what happened.