Final film of Wallace Beery. He died of heart failure on April 15, 1949, three days after the release of this film, having been under contract to MGM for 19 years.
Features the last music score by Herbert Stothart, who had been with the studio since the late 1920's. He passed two months before the release of this picture. He is most famous for his uncredited scoring of The Wizard of Oz (1939).
This film was a flop at the box office, resulting in a loss to MGM of $291,000 (about $3.9M in 2024) according to studio records.
According to a contemporary article in the Los Angeles Times, Spencer Tracy was slated to play the role of Dr. Meade, and Robert Taylor and Van Johnson were considered for the role of Big Jack.