Director Mervyn LeRoy disliked the acting job Bette Davis did in this film. She, in turn, hated his directing and called him a "hack," feeling that her talent was being wasted playing supporting roles. This rift came back to haunt LeRoy when Davis's star began to ascend.
Scenes of frenzy caused by the enactment of Prohibition were originally used in The Public Enemy.
The set of Vivian's ocean liner cabin was used the following year in _Baby Face_.
The title refers to the superstition that if three people light their cigarettes with the same match, the third person will soon die. While some attribute the superstition to World War I, where it was sometimes thought that lighting a match long enough to light three cigarettes would attract enemy gunfire, it is now known that a match company "created" the superstition to cut down on sharing of matches and thus increase sales.