The melody of "The Man That Got Away" was written for this film as an up-tempo song called "I Can't Believe My Eyes". Harold Arlen disliked the Johnny Mercer lyrics and put it in his trunk unused, only to pull it out years later to give to Ira Gershwin, who wrote masterful new lyrics for A Star Is Born (1954).
Anthony Quinn was offered the role of Jigger Pine. He thought the script was terrible, but needed work. He made some notes about how the script could be improved and scheduled a meeting with Jack L. Warner. At the meeting, Warner asked Quinn what he thought of the script. Quinn started to answer by saying "Well, Jack..." At this point, Warner stopped him. He told Quinn that he didn't like the little he'd said already and told him to forget it.
In a relatively rare appearance as an actor, Elia Kazan plays Nickie in this movie. He would go on to earn fame as the director of some of the best plays and movies of the 1950s, and notoriety as someone who "named names" for the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. Before those events, his castmate in this film is Howard Da Silva, who would eventually be blacklisted by the HUAC.
The trumpet music performed by Jack Carson's character was dubbed by Snooky Young and Frankie Zinzer while the piano music was dubbed by Stan Wrightsman. Saxophonist and clarinetist Archie Rosate played Elia Kazan's clarinet solos.