Both Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous long after they had completed the film.
Blake Edwards became a non-drinker a year after completing the film and went into substance-abuse recovery. He said that he and Jack Lemmon were heavy drinkers while making the film.
While preparing for their roles, both Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings numerous times. Lemmon even spent several evenings at the Lincoln Heights jail where he observed inmates in the drunk tank and the dry-out rooms. He later said, "It was frightening, watching those poor souls tortured by delirium tremens. As a result of what I saw we changed several scenes. For instance, we used a dry-out table where you are strapped down, rather than having the guy just wake up in a cell."
The film's title comes from the poem "Vitae Summa Brevis" by Ernest Dowson: "They are not long, the days of wine and roses: / Out of a misty dream / Our path emerges for a while, then closes / Within a dream." Dowson also wrote the poem from which the title Gone with the Wind (1939) came.