W.C. Fields and Edgar Bergen were paid $100,000 each. Fields was paid an additional $25,000 for writing the script.
W.C. Fields became a big hit on radio, especially on Edgar Bergen's radio program, where he had a long-running "feud" with Charlie McCarthy. This film was an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of that feud by having it carried on in a movie.
Legend has it that on the set of You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, a stagehand was cleaning out W.C. Fields' dressing room and accidentally bumped into a table on which Fields had placed a bottle of whiskey. He caught the bottle before it hit the floor, but the cork had popped out and he couldn't find it. He placed the bottle back on the table and left. Later Fields came back to the dressing room, and a few minutes after-wards stormed out, roaring "Who took the cork out of my lunch?"
The certificate number on-screen is misprinted as 50101. The actual number as issued by the Production Code Administration (and on file in Hollywood, California) is 5101.
There are two different cast lists in this movie, both with character names. IMDb uses the list in the opening credits because it is more complete: the end credits omit Mortimer Snerd. The only other difference places Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson last in the end credits, with the character name of "Cheerful" instead of "Rochester."