Columbia chief Harry Cohn had serious misgivings about this adaptation of Harry Segall's minor stage play. He preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes (e.g., anything featuring the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth). However, Sidney Buchman eventually was able to talk Cohn into forking out for costly celestial sets and Farnsworth's elaborate mansion and also into hiring Robert Montgomery on loan-out from MGM. Buchman was also able to convince Cohn that he had a better appreciation of what the public would pay to see than the Wall Street bankers to whom Cohn answered.
James Gleason was brought on board mainly to polish the dialogue. He had a knack for authentic sounding vernacular language and also happened to be a great actor.
Columbia planned to film a sequel to this picture entitled "Hell Bent for Mr. Jordan", but shelved the project until the original cast could be re-assembled. That picture was never produced.
The tune that Joe Pendleton keeps playing (poorly) on his saxophone is "The Last Rose of Summer" - whether he's Pendleton or Farnsworth.
James Gleason was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the role of Max Corkle. This is the first time in Academy Awards history for a person to be nominated for a supporting Oscar for a role in which a different person would later also be nominated for a supporting Oscar: Jack Warden was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Max Corkle in Heaven Can Wait (1978).