Frank Tashlin wanted to direct this film because he disliked Norman Z. McLeod's direction of The Paleface (1948) for which he wrote the script.
Bob Hope offered the role of Mike to Maureen O'Hara but she turned it down. O'Hara loved the script but was going through an unhappy period in her marriage and felt that she would not be able to be funny in the film.
Included among the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the 500 movies nominated for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.
Several Frank Tashlin visual gags in this film were re-used for the Jerry Lewis movies he directed. For instance, the trapped-under- the-door bit and the rotating barber's chair.
For some reason modern prints have cut out the shot of Potter's two penguins having turned into skeletons on the back of his jalopy before they enter the ghost town.