Hands was initially to go into production in September 1947 with director Robert Siodmak at the helm, but it was first pushed back to November 15. Siodmak had already directed Lancaster in The Killers (which earned him an Oscar nomination and an Edgar Allan Poe Award), and was noted in Hollywood for his mastery of crime-melodrama films. He held credits directing other crime, mystery and film noirs as Time Out of Mind, The Dark Mirror, The Spiral Staircase, The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, The Suspect, Christmas Holiday, Phantom Lady, Son of Dracula, The Night Before the Divorce, Fly-by-Night, Pièges, Autour d'une enquête, Stürme der Leidenschaft and Tumultes, in addition to writing the story that was turned into Conflict. Siodmak was planning to film Kiss the Blood Off My Hands before his next Hellinger-produced picture Cry of the City, the later of which was scheduled to be filmed in late December 1947. But Kiss the Blood Off My Hands' November to December 1947 shooting schedule was pushed back again by a month, and then indefinitely, until a mid-March 1948 date was secured. Universal-International Pictures changed the schedule firstly to allow All My Sons to be filmed first, as an assurance that their end of the bargain would be taken care of, and secondly, to give Lancaster enough time to fulfill Wallis' film obligation at Paramount Studio and Siodmak a chance to wrap up his Hellinger project. All My Sons was filmed from September to December 1947, following which Lancaster switched over to Paramount for Wallis' Sorry, Wrong Number, filmed from January to March 1948. Both of these films would be released in 1948, after the filming of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands. In January 1948, Norman Foster was announced as Siodmak's replacement to direct the film. Foster was another crew member that flourished in crime and mystery flics. In the late 1930s, he wrote and directed six of the eight Mr. Moto films starring Peter Lorre for Twentieth Century-Fox Films. He also directed three Charlie Chan pictures for the same studio. But his most prestigious screen credit was directing Orson Welles' 1943 film Journey into Fear. In addition to this, he directed four other mystery and crime pictures: Fair Warning, Ride, Kelly, Ride, Scotland Yard and I Cover Chinatown, the last in which he also starred. Foster requested British crime novelist Philip MacDonald be brought in to work on