in the Rue Morgue, Dracula, Night Ride and Outside the Law, making him a perfect candidate to edit Norma Productions' film noir. One of the concerns that the production team had was with regards to the amount of material they could leave in of Lancaster's flogging scene. The Motion Picture Association of America objected, but the producers appealed; it was decided that the preview audience would have a say in the final matter. The preview viewers gave it a favorable approval and the scene was left almost unedited. After completing a rough cut in early June, Hecht and Lancaster were so impressed by Newton's on-screen performance that they immediately began developing another vehicle for him titled Old Harry Out West, written by Hugh Gray. Norma Productions had hopped to film the picture later in 1948 but the story was eventually dropped in favor of other Lancaster-starred pictures. Sources vary as to when the film finished its post-production stage, ranging between mid-July to mid-September. Upon the completion of the picture, Hecht and Lancaster presented gift baskets of beverages to every member of the cast, crew and company executives affiliated with the picture. It was during the editing stage of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, in early June 1948, that Lancaster was approached by Alfred Hitchcock to star in his film production company Transatlantic Pictures' next movie Under Capricorn. Hitchcock, too, had hoped for an all-British cast for his next film, with the exception of star Ingrid Bergman and her then-uncast male co-star. Bergman wanted Charles Boyer; Hitchcock wanted Lancaster. Unfortunately, Hitchcock's film was to be photographed in England from mid-July to October 1948. Although it was conveniently timed, what with Lancaster's next picture, Criss Cross, to be filmed from mid-June to mid-July 1948, and his next assignment for Wallis, Rope of Sand, not scheduled to begin filming until late January 1949, Lancaster had other plans. He wanted to hit the road in promotion of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands during the summer of 1948, previewing the picture to audiences in smaller cities, and later that year make personal appearances with a vaudeville act (November 1948 to January 1949). The role in Under Capricorn eventually went to Joseph Cotten; Hitchcock would later tell Francois Truffaut that Cotten was miscast and that the picture would have fared better with Lancaster, but that the later had proved too expensive. Ten years later,