Al Jolson insisted on singing the opening number Vive la France live on set, as he claimed it would be impossible to do the song justice if was filmed miming to playback, in order to deliver it with the excitement and verve that only he could bring to it. Even though this presented considerable technical problems, Warner Brothers agreed (that's the real studio orchestra actually on set playing the house band of the Wonder Bar) and this is one of the very last musical numbers to be performed live on camera.
One scene gave the censors some consternation: A man asks a couple if he can cut into their dance, and while the woman says, "Sure!" and rushes towards him, he dances away with her partner. Upon hearing this, Al Jolson says with a twinkle in his eye: "Boys will be boys!" Warner Brothers refused to cut the scene (and it exists today in the Turner Classic Movies print). At the time, the Production Code was not rigorously enforced. Surprisingly, however, the movie was approved for reissue in 1936 despite this homosexual scene and the fact that someone gets away with murder, both clear violations of the Production Code.
Merna Kennedy met and married Busby Berkeley during production of this film. She appeared in three films in 1934 and retired, but her marriage to Berkeley was over in 1935.
Al Jolson and Dick Powell did not get along during filming. Powell had anticipated having a pleasant and supportive working relationship with Jolson, in large part because he and Jolson's wife, Ruby Keeler were a screen team. However, he soon discovered that Jolson didn't like to share the spotlight and was skilled at upstaging other actors. Given the fact that Powell was young and on a career upswing, not to mention was the frequent leading man of Jolson's wife, that also did not endear him to Jolson. Powell stated in an interview about the film, "He [Jolson] took the one good song I had and gave me in exchange the eight bars he didn't like." The rest of the cast evidently disliked Jolson as well.
The last of 4 films which co-starred Kay Francis and Ricardo Cortez, the others being Transgression (1931), The House on 56th Street (1933) and Mandalay (1934). In all four Ricardo Cortez's character are killed. In Mandalay he is poisoned, in Wonder Bar he is stabbed, in Trangression an old man kill him because he abused his daughter, In The House of 56th Street he is gunshot.