and Belgium. The film opened in Sweden on May 2, 1949, in Finland on August 19, 1949, in France on November 21, 1949, in Portugal on July 14, 1950, in Denmark on March 9, 1951, in Spain on April 23, 1951, in Austria in November 1953 and in West Germany on November 20, 1953. Marketing The film benefited from great publicity, mostly headed by Lancaster as Fontaine was indisposed after giving birth to her daughter. Lancaster wanted to raise awareness for his new production company and made himself available for all of Universal-International Pictures' publicity plans, spending from mid-October 1948 to early January 1949 promoting the film. Two weeks prior to the opening of the film, Hecht and Lancaster, accompanied by Norma Productions' advertising and publicity director William Peirce, Jr., and Universal-International Pictures' eastern publicity manager, Al Horwits, went on an eleven city personal appearance tour. Their program included screening Kiss the Blood Off My Hand, exclusively for the press, radio representatives and motion picture exhibitors, followed by a luncheon with the attendees to conduct exclusive interviews. Lancaster also appeared on local radio stations and tie-in events with local stores, and occasionally met with the newspaper press for one-on-one interviews. Starting in mid-October, the promotional team appeared in New York City (October 16), Baltimore (October 19), Philadelphia (October 20 at the Variety Club with special guest Mickey Rooney), Pittsburgh (October 21), Cleveland (October 22 at the Carter Hotel), Rochester (October 23), Buffalo (October 24 with a luncheon with the city's mayor Bernard J. Dowd and an interview on Foster Brooks' radio show), Cincinnati (October 25), Chicago (October 26), Memphis (October 27) and Atlanta (October 28). Universal-International Pictures' advertising and publicity department, headed by Maurice F. Bergman, came up with an original idea to publicize the film. A week prior to the opening in each of the twenty key cities (and its suburbs), the studio took out a full page, one thousand lines - seven column advertisements, listing all of the theater openings with times and dates for the cities and their surrounding areas. The same advertisement was placed on the day of opening, for each city, in the local newspapers. This was the first time that Universal-International Pictures took out a full-page newspaper advertisement to promote the opening of a single film. Sporting goods stores also featured athletic displays of Lancaster stills from the film, billboards and window displays were