Zaentz continued to try to buy the property every time there was a top executive change at MGM until 1989, when the new studio heads Jay Kanter and Alan Ladd, Jr. decided that MGM would not make the film.
Alan Moore | Alan Lomax | Alan Alda | Alan Jackson | Alan Shearer | Alan Turing | Alan Greenspan | Alan Autry | Alan Ayckbourn | Alan Jay Lerner | Alan Ridout | Alan Bennett | Alan Arkin | Alan Thicke | Alan K. Simpson | Alan Keyes | The Alan Titchmarsh Show | Alan Whiticker | Alan Jones | Alan | Alan Watts | Alan Rickman | Alan Freed | Alan Clark | Alan Price | Alan Hovhaness | Alan Bleasdale | Alan Titchmarsh | Alan Dershowitz | Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke |
Several film and television adaptations have been made: a 1941 film version starred Alan Ladd under the title This Gun for Hire (the title of the book's U.S. edition), a Turkish adaptation (Günes Dogmasin) was made in 1961, and an Italian television mini-series, Una pistola in vendita, followed in 1970.
In the 1940s, to advertise its new collections, Belber partnered with Hollywood stars, such as Ray Milland and Alan Ladd.
The film is a prequel to 1964's The Carpetbaggers, in which Alan Ladd had played a much older version of the character Nevada Smith.
After this film was released, her career declined and her films were less popular, with the exception of Ramrod, The Blue Dahlia and to a lesser extent Saigon, the latter two of which paired her with four-time co-star Alan Ladd.
The film stars Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd and Cecil Kellaway and co-stars Harry Dean Stanton (credited as Dean Stanton) in an early film appearance.