This was one of the few movies that received an "Approved" certificate despite two violations of the production code: the evildoers did not receive their just desserts by the end, and police officials were not portrayed as champions of good. Frank Shaw, a former mayor of Los Angeles, filed a $1-million lawsuit against Warner Bros., claiming the corrupt mayor in the movie was modelled after him, and that it showed he was responsible for the bombing of a private investigator. Shaw had been voted out of office in 1938 in a campaign against political corruption led by a civic reform group (which had hired a private detective to investigate the mayor; it was that detective's house that had been bombed). Warner Bros. countered that the movie was a remake of a 1931 film, but nevertheless Warners' East Coast ad campaign for the film called it "The Ex-Mayor's Libel Suit Picture".
Edgar Edwards (Lineman), Arthur Gardner (Marge's Boyfriend) and John Harron (Second Policeman) are actors listed with their character names in studio records, but they did not appear in the movie.