William Pawley played the role of Dorothy's brother in the stage version, and reprises his role here in the film.
The original Broadway production of "Bad Girl" by Brian Marlow and Viña Delmar opened at the Hudson Theater on October 2, 1930 and ran for 85 performances. The cast were lead by Paul Kelly as Eddie, Sylvia Sidney as Dorothy and Charlotte Wynters as Edna, as well as Sascha Beaumont, Angela Jacobs, Grace Morse, William Pawley and Walter Vaughn.
Frank Borzage became the first person to win a second Best Director Academy Award. (Lewis Milestone had already won two Oscars for directing, but one was in the quickly retired Best Comedic Direction category.)
Several film studios were interested in adapting Viña Delmar's novel but were put off by the Hays Office's insistence that they would have difficulty getting it past them. Fox came up with a treatment that satisfied them.
Eddie Collins (James Dunn) said the word "OK" 21 times.