"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie onMay 20, 1940 with Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche reprising their film roles.
Mary Astor's pregnancy caused some filming problems.
Barbara Stanwyck was originally slated for the role of Eve Peabody, but was replaced by Claudette Colbert because of scheduling problems.
After Wilder and Brackett fought with director Mitchell Leisen to make sure as much of their work made on the screen as possible, Wilder was convinced he had to direct the scripts they wrote and Brackett was convinced he had to produce.
On Thursday, September 28, 1939, Robert L. Buckner filed a plagiarism suit demanding an injunction against exhibition of the film, "Midnight," and an accounting and damages, in the U.S. Federal Court, against Paramount Pictures, Inc. and Charles Beahan. Plaintiff (Buckner)claims that in 1933 he and Beahan wrote a play entitled, "Dearly Beloved," and delivered a manuscript to Paramount. The complaint charges Paramount with infringing the play in the picture, "Midnight," and states that Beahan is named a defendant because he refuses to join the suit as a plaintiff.
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.
When Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett turned in their script, the studio liked it, but felt it needed some work. The writers they hired to rewrite the script were: Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. The studio sent them their own script to rewrite without knowing it. Wilder and Brackett simply retyped their original script and the studio loved the "rewrites" so much, they produced it with no further "changes".
When John Barrymore was cast, it was well known that his alcoholism would necessitate some accommodation. This accounted for the presence in the cast of his young wife, Elaine Barrie. When he could not remember some of his lines, they were written out on blackboards just off camera, and both his irascibility and sense of humor were well in evidence. At one point one of the female assistants on the set went into the ladies room, only to be confronted with the sight of Barrymore, his back turned, relieving himself. "You can't be here," she protested, "it's just for ladies." He turned around and retorted, "So's this!"