Lucia Bronder's play was unpublished and based on her short story "Our Judy," published in Smart Set Magazine (date undetermined).
RKO bought the rights of the play from Gloria Swanson. Director George Fitzmaurice was borrowed from MGM and Phillips Holmes (in the role later played by Joel McCrea) from Paramount. The finished film was considered so bad that George Cukor was summoned by Selznick to direct two weeks of retakes, with McCrea taking over Holmes'role.
The New York Journal is one of the newspapers flashed on the screen with a headline about the story in the movie. This is one of the few times that the name of an actual newspaper is seen in a fictional storyline.
This was the last film released under the RKO-Pathe name. The company was taken over by RKO Radio shortly after the film's release.