 When John Huston (I) (qv) first started working on the project in  1941, the studio had George Raft (qv), Edward G. Robinson (qv)  and John Garfield (I) (qv) in mind for the three main roles. Then  World War II intervened. By the time Huston came back from making  several documentaries for the war effort, Humphrey Bogart (qv) had  become Warner Brothers biggest star. This was entirely appropriate,  for when Bogart first got wind of the fact that Huston might be  making a film of the B. Traven (qv) novel, he immediately started  badgering Huston for a part.