In 2004, when Michael Mashon, a curator of the motion picture division at the Library of Congress, received a request for a print of this film, he discovered two negatives of the film: the original camera negative and a "duplicate negative" that was longer. The duplicate negative was the pre-release (uncensored) version of the film that was submitted to the New York State censorship board in 1933 for approval. The uncensored version received its public premiere at the London Film Festival in November 2004, more than 70 years after it was made. The existence of these negatives allows pristine quality prints to be made as compared to other surviving films of that era.
In the original 1933 sneak preview, Barbara Stanwyck's dialog in the opening sequence where she attacks her father for surrounding her with men since she was the age of 14 is intact, although it was actually cut from the release version.
Originally banned in some US cities due to its sexual innuendo.
In the prerelease version, a scene was included in which Lily seduces the brakeman on a freight train to secure passage on the train. The scene is very racy and was cut from the released version. The brakeman is played by James Murray, who had become a silent film star after playing the lead in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928). By 1933 he had fallen on hard times; he would commit suicide in 1936 by throwing himself into the Hudson River.
A 25-year-old John Wayne plays the part of Jimmy McCoy Jr. in the filing department, one of many men Lily uses to climb the corporate ladder.