character he portrayed in the movie. Browne won the $50 prize. The title The Unafraid was first used publicly on May 21, 1948, when Variety announced producer Vernon's newly born child, while he was producing The Unafraid. On May 29, 1948, Boxoffice confirmed the title change, and on June 1, 1948, The Film Daily reported "Norma Productions has just completed "Unafraid", formerly titled "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands", for release by Universal-International". Thusly, from May to August 1948, during its entire post-production stage, the film was known as The Unafraid. Contrary to popular belief, the title The Unafraid was not derived from the American version of the novel. At the time of Norma Productions' acquisition, the book had already been published twice for the American market, both times in 1946, and both times under its original title Kiss the Blood Off My Hands. The first American edition was a hardcover by Farrar & Rinehart, which was then licensed to Dell Publishing for a "map-back" (a feature popular with thrillers) paperback edition, cataloged Dell 197. It was only once the film was released that Dell Publishing, in cooperation with Universal-International Pictures as a tie-in for the film's promotion, re-pressed the book under the title The Unafraid [Kiss the Blood Off My Hands], in December 1948 (with the catalog number Dell 242). Dell Publishing's second publishing featured Fontaine and Lancaster depicted on the cover art with the text "Starring Joan Fontaine & Burt Lancaster". In the last week of August 1948, Universal-International Pictures issued a press release announcing that The Unafraid would be released as Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, its original intended title. After further examination, Hecht's letters had come back three-to-one in favor of keeping the original title, and since the Motion Picture Association of American had merely recommended, and not imposed, a change, the title was reverted. The film premiered in late October 1948 and was released in all of the big cities in November 1948 under the title Kiss the Blood Off My Hands. Some areas nevertheless objected to the title; the National Legion of Decency, a fundamentalist Catholic group, rated the film "Classification A-II", which was described as "unobjectionable for adults"; in other terms, for adults only due to moral objections. In addition to this, the Chicago Censor Board also imposed an "Adult-Only" classification to Kiss the Blood Off My Hands. Some areas of California