 Cinematographer Rudolph Maté employed shadows, shapes and camera angles to create the imagery.One notable scene shows Martin Schulz (Paul Lukas) descending a staircase awaiting his arrest by the Gestapo, while behind him the shadow of a web-like criss-cross of window panes is a visual metaphor for his own web of deceit.Martin Schulz and Max Eisenstein (Morris Carnovsky) are good friends, German expatriate art dealers living in the United States.