Fans regard this as the last true Laurel and Hardy film. It was their last film done for Hal Roach. It would also be the last film in which they would have significant input.
The film ends with "The Koo-koos" played in an ominous minor key. This is appropriate, since Stan and Ollie will share a cell with killer Nick Grainger.
The title was a pun on the 1937 film Souls at Sea, starring Gary Cooper, but the two films otherwise have nothing in common.