Two endings were filmed, one in which Jean Arthur ends up staying with Melvyn Douglas and one in which she ends up with her first husband, Fred MacMurray.
Studio officials sent out more than 10,000 questionnaires to college students, and screened the film with both endings at UCLA and USC in order to see which conclusion audiences preferred.
Released at about the same time as My Favorite Wife (1940), which deals with a husband whose first wife is presumed dead, and his new wife whom he has just married. This film deals with a wife with two husbands. Both movies did well at the box office.
This film is a variation of Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous poem "Enoch Arden". In both the poem and the film, a husband is shipwrecked and presumed dead, only to return home to find his wife involved with a man he used to know.
The script initially was ruled too scandalous to produce by the MPAA, which cited the film's "apparent lack of any respect for the sanctity of marriage; its farcical treatment of the subject of bigamy; and its very frank and detailed discussion of the unsavory subject of divorce by collusion." It is unclear what changes to the script were made to satisfy the censorship board, but the revised version of the script finally received the MPAA's stamp of approval.
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