First film where James Cagney dances - showing off his vaudeville and stage experience as a song-and-dance man. Cagney lobbied Warner Bros. to play this role. He would show off these talents to their fullest in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).
The "Shanghai Lil" number includes some brief shots in an opium den; they were cut from television prints.
This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1992.
John Garfield is often credited as being an extra (sailor in the "Shanghai Lil" production number) in this film, five years before signing a Hollywood contract with Warner Brothers, but researchers are in dispute over whether it is actually Garfield in the shot, that lasts less than one second onscreen. In the documentary The John Garfield Story (2003), Garfield's daughter, actress Julie Garfield, denies that it is her father, and forensic examination of the extra's ears strongly suggests it is not Garfield, who was not in California at the time of filming. (The sailor in Footlight Parade bears a strong resemblance to a policeman (in the shot of three) in the "Pettin' in the Park" number in Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), also by Warner Bros.)
Dick Powell had become ill with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized and then rest for several weeks as production on the film began. The studio considered replacing him with Stanley Smith. It was ultimately decided that audiences wouldn't want to see any other actor than Powell paired with Ruby Keeler, so the production was delayed until Powell was able to begin work on the film.