Spencer Tracy's erratic behavior on this film helped seal his fate with 20th-Century Fox. During filming Tracy disappeared from the set for weeks while on a drunken binge. He reportedly also showed up to the set one day surly and hungover and fell a sleep in the "Manhattan apartment" set. The studio locked the stage while he was still asleep and Tracy woke up in a rage, and started destroying sets, reportedly causing thousands of dollars worth of damage for which the studio billed him for.
According to a 28 July 1935 New York Times article, there were 4,950 technicians, architects, artists, carpenters, stone masons and laborers, 250 electricians and 3,000 extras in the Inferno scene. A total of 300,00 feet of film was shot, which was whittled down to a manageable 8000 feet by editor Alfred DeGaetano. A total of 14,000 people worked on the film.
Although the Fox Film Corporation produced the movie, it was distributed after the merger with Twentieth Century, which began trading on May 31, 1935. Fox Film Corporation is listed as the copyright owners on the print, but Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation is the only owners in the copyright registry.
Remarkably, outtakes still survive from this film. Raw footage of the clapperboard and the setup for a dance number with 16-year-old Rita Hayworth are included in the documentary Rita.
Shooting from December 3,1934-late January,1935,and released July 31.This was also Spencer Tracy's final film at Fox before moving over to MGM.
The dream sequence of the inferno is stock footage taken from the 1924 film Dante's Inferno.