Frank Capra wrote in his autobiography that the production was "shaped in the fires of discord and filmed in an atmosphere of pain, strain, and loathing."
At one point, Apple Annie waves across the street to an unseen acquaintance called "Tallulah" who is opening in a play, an in-joke reference to Bette Davis' long-running feud with Tallulah Bankhead.
Shirley Jones signed to star, but Glenn Ford made Frank Capra replace Jones with his then girlfriend Hope Lange.
According to the Bette Davis biography, "Fasten Your Seatbelts", the actress was furious when she read a Glenn Ford interview in which the actor claimed to have gotten her the part because of the boost she had given him years before in A Stolen Life (1946). Davis is quoted as saying, "Who is that son of a bitch that he should say he helped me have a comeback! That shitheel wouldn't have helped me out of a sewer!"
The animosity that sprang up between Glenn Ford and Bette Davis gave Frank Capra constant blinding headaches, even though he refused to physically intervene in their altercations.