The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'JEROME VALENTINE A proud, self-made man. Paternalistic, consciously "plain and ordinary", has carefully built a reputation for being the nicest man in Melbourne. On the other side of the coin, he has a mistress, controls several rackets and wouldn't hesitate to have someone killed. Drives a car.

'COLIN SWEENEY Attractive, intelligent man. Has done a prison term, but is not a standard criminal type in as much as he is educated, and witty - in a cynical type of way.

'ADRIENNE Extremely attractive. Has been around and has no illusions left. She performs as Valentine's mistress purely because of the money and the comfort. But her heart belongs to Sweeney.

'MARIA STEINER German extraction. Valentine's housekeeper. A rather downtrodden but determined woman with problems. Dour - life is a struggle to survive.

'MIKE WARDEN Hard, tough, professional crim. Valentine's front man who runs his nightclub, does his dirty work.

'ARTHUR VALENTINE Valentine's son. Normal, balanced, nice person. Has no idea regarding the darker side of his father's nature. Drives a car.

'HELEN VALENTINE Valentine's wife. Nothing is ever right. A rather bitter, unsatisfied person, given to self-pity and fault-finding.

'RALPH O'CONNOR A crim. Efficient in his way but not bright and has no sense of humour. He has an earnest quality which is because he has to concentrate very hard to understand things.

'DR. CLIVE MORRISON Personable young doctor who is out at a nightclub with a girl other than his wife.

'CATHY SCOTT Attractive. The girl who is out with Dr. Morrison.

'REVEREND McINNES Vigorous, appealing Cleric.

'JOAN Any age. Valentine's secretary.

'CAB DRIVER

'NURSE

'ELIZABETH Attractive girl, Arthur's wife.

'BERYL MITCHELL Maria's friend. Pleasant.'