 The play "Margin for Error" was based on an incident that occurred in 1938, when New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed Police Captain Max Finkelstein to head a special squad of Jewish officers tasked with protecting the German consulate in the city from protestors.The police officer character's name was originally Max Finkelstein but was changed to Moe Finkelstein after the real Finkelstein's suicide in May 1940.Otto Preminger had directed and starred as Baumer in the Broadway production of Claire Booth Luce's play, which opened on November 3, 1939, at the Plymouth Theatre, where it ran for 264 performances, and he reprised the role for a national tour in the summer of 1940.