Horace McCoy must have been outraged that his unpublished 1952 novel 'Scalpel' reached the screen under the 'naughty' title Columbia saddled it with; especially as high maintainance blonde bullet Lizabeth Scott's presence barely even constitutes a subplot compared to the scenes between Charlton Heston and Diane Foster which provide the film with it's heart.
It's been compared to 'The Citadel', but the subject matter also rather resembles 'The Best Years of Our Lives' and Ealing Studios' 'Cage of Gold'. The studio shies away, however, from the potentially provocative nature of the material, and the suspiciously short running time (and the abbreviated appearance by Arthur Franz in a role that approximates to the client Novak in Wyler's film) indicates some drastic pruning and back-peddling before they felt able to release it to cinemas.
It's been compared to 'The Citadel', but the subject matter also rather resembles 'The Best Years of Our Lives' and Ealing Studios' 'Cage of Gold'. The studio shies away, however, from the potentially provocative nature of the material, and the suspiciously short running time (and the abbreviated appearance by Arthur Franz in a role that approximates to the client Novak in Wyler's film) indicates some drastic pruning and back-peddling before they felt able to release it to cinemas.