The original ending of the film called for Joe and Mabel to be shot to death, but the commercial failure of You Only Live Once (1937), which had a tragic ending, compelled the Warner Bros. studio heads to demand a happy ending. After writer Robert Rossen refused to write the new ending, Seton I. Miller was brought in to write it.
During filming on location at a train yard, Billy Halop fell on the tracks in front of a train. Acting quickly, Bobby Jordan pulled him to safety and saved his life. John Garfield had some years prior to becoming a film actor, spent time riding the rails and had witnessed such accidents with more unfortunate outcomes. He was very much shaken by this incident with Halop.
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie on April 14, 1941 with John Garfield reprising his film role.
The city hall steps Joe and Mabel sit on are part of the facade Warners used that same year for the famed finale of The Roaring Twenties (1939).
This film's earliest documented telecast took place in Tucson Sunday 16 September 1956 on KDWI (Channel 9); it first aired in Los Angeles Monday 1 October 1956 on KNXT (Channel 2), in Cincinnati Friday 9 November 1956 on WKRC (Channel 12), in Sacramento CA Tuesday 20 November 1956 on KCRA (Channel 3), in Portland OR Monday 17 December 1956 on KLOR (Channel 12), in Wichita Tuesday 1 January 1957 on KAKE (Channel 10), in Indianapolis Wednesday 23 January 1957 on WTTV (Channel 10), and in Chicago Sunday 24 March 1957 on WGN (Channel 9).