They Live by Night
Making "Party Girl" was not a good experience for Ray. Having had problems with his last two, independently-produced films, and physically debilitated by the experiences, he signed to direct a studio film for MGM in order to get the security of one of the major Hollywood studios, and to work again with an earlier collaborator, Charles Schnee; the two had worked together on 1948's "They Live by Night", and Schnee was scheduled to be the producer of "Party Girl". MGM was interested in Ray because he had grown up and gone to college in Chicago during Prohibition and could recreate the atmosphere of the time and place, which Ray was eager to do. Schnee, however, was replaced by Joe Pasternak, a specialist in musicals, and Ray discovered that he had little input into the writing of the script, which was already finished when he signed on, by comedy specialist George Wells.