The rights for the novel by Roger Vercel had been acquired by the German film company Universum Film A.G. (better known as 'UFA') in 1935. Raoul Ploquin, head of the French branch of UFA, first asked writer Charles Spaak to write a scenario based on Vercel's novel. Dissatisfied with the result, André Cayatte was asked to take over but the project was quickly shelved. UFA subsequently sold the rights to Joseph Lucachevitch, director of the company 'Societé d'Exploitation et de Distribution de Films' (known as SEDIF), based in France, who invited Jacques Prévert to re-write the scenario and dialogue.