The original ending of the film called for Joe and Mabel to be shot to death, but the commercial failure of You Only Live Once (1937), which had a tragic ending, compelled the Warner Bros. studio heads to demand a happy ending. After writer Robert Rossen refused to write the new ending, Seton I. Miller was brought in to write it.
During filming on location at a train yard, Billy Halop fell on the tracks in front of a train. Acting quickly, Bobby Jordan pulled him to safety and saved his life. John Garfield had some years prior to becoming a film actor, spent time riding the rails and had witnessed such accidents with more unfortunate outcomes. He was very much shaken by this incident with Halop.
The city hall steps Joe and Mabel sit on are part of the facade Warners used that same year for the famed finale of The Roaring Twenties (1939).
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie on April 14, 1941 with John Garfield reprising his film role.
BINDLESTIFF: A hobo who carried a bindle was known as a bindlestiff which contained a bedroll and other gear. The term bindle may descend from the German word Bündel, meaning something wrapped up in a blanket and bound by cord for carrying (cf. originally Middle Dutch bundel), or have arisen as a portmanteau of bind and spindle.