The screenplay—originally titled Friday, Saturday, Sunday—was adapted by two writers who had been blacklisted in the 1950s, Howard Rodman (credited here under the pseudonym Henri Simoun) and Abraham Polonsky. It was based on the 1962 novel The Commissioner by Richard Dougherty, a former New York bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times who had served in the 1950s as a deputy New York City police commissioner for community relations. Siegel was a genre director known at the time for taut action films like The Lineup (1958) and Hell Is for Heroes (1962). He later directed five films starring Clint Eastwood, including Dirty Harry.