Humphrey Bogart's first film for Warner Bros., where he would sign a long-term contract four years later and eventually become a star. This was his ninth appearance in films. He appeared in Big City Blues (1932) in an uncredited role as "Shep Adkins."
Gibby says he knows the mayor of New York City, Jimmy Walker. By the time this film was released, Walker had resigned due to scandal nearly three weeks previously.
Under the three-column newspaper headline "POLICE ROUND UP MURDER PARTY SUSPECTS," there is a single column text box with the head "WIFE SPANKER DEFENDS ACTION." The three-paragraph reports on the case between the "the spanker-defendant" Samuel Willis Rushmore, a millionaire inventor, and "the spankee and plaintiff" Hazel Howe Rushmore, "his wife, who is some years his junior." This was a real case, and the Rushmores had several court battles well into the 1930s, even after their divorce. The eccentric Rushmore founded the '"Millionaires' Alimony Defiance Society," a nation-wide "protective" organization of wealthy men being or have been sued by their wives in October 1936, and in 1939, as a political protest, he "began deliberately dismantling his estate. Cutting down trees, burning automobiles, and uprooting specimen bushes."
Bud buys a one-way ticket to New York City for $46, the equivalent of about $1,050 in 2023. The $1,100 inheritance equates to over $25,000 in 2023.