The wife of producer Mark Hellinger, Gladys Glad, a former showgirl for Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., was responsible for getting this film made. Hellinger had brought home a large stack of scripts that he was to read for filming consideration. He had leafed through the script and read the summary, but felt that "nobody would pay money to see a bunch of truck drivers." His wife read this script, liked it, and pressured Hellinger to read it. Reluctantly, he did, the film eventually got made, and it became the sleeper hit of the year for Warners. It was made for an estimated $400,000 and grossed more than $4 million. (Source: Book "The Mark Hellinger Story" by Jim Bishop, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1952)
Alan Hale wears a gold pinkie ring in this movie. Some 23 years, later this same ring can be seen on the pinkie of his son Alan Hale Jr. while he was playing the Skipper on Gilligan's Island (1964). After his father's death, Hale Jr. wore this ring for the rest of his life in memory of his father, with whom he was very close.
According to the special feature about this film on the DVD release, all scenes were filmed in sequence.
The pinball machine played by Irish at Mandel's Diner is "Big Six," manufactured by J.H. Keeney and Company of Chicago in 1939.
Ida Lupino worked with Alan Hale in this feature and years later, she would direct his son Alan Hale Jr. in several episodes of Gilligan's Island (1964).