There are several dialogue references to the novels "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind", each of which were in production, and eagerly anticipated by the public, on the March 1939 release of this film. The script references were clear attempts by MGM to obliquely promote their late 1939 blockbusters.
When Police Sergeant Cassidy, portrayed by William Gargan, comes to see Joe and the gang, he says, "Don't tell me I'm crashing into society, some of the 400 are going to be awfully sore about missing this party." "The 400" were the purported late gilded age (1880s and later) social elite of New York City, a term coined by Ward McAllister (the self-appointed arbiter of New York society of the late 1800s), and the term supposedly represented the number of people who could be accommodated in the ballroom of Mrs (Caroline) William Backhouse Astor, Jr.
Tom Neal, who portrayed Dick Gilder, the target of Mary's marriage scam, was in real life convicted of the 1965 murder of his third wife, and after his release from prison in 1971, he said "Women in my life brought me nothing but unhappiness."
The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 11 September 1912 and had 541 performances. The opening night cast included Jane Cowl as Mary Turner and Brandon Hurst as Demarest. There was one Broadway revival in 1928 which included Claudette Colbert as Agnes.
First of two American credited feature films by Czech director Gustav Machatý, who was most famous for directing Hedy Lamarr in Ecstasy (1933), which was notorious for its nudity.