"Spider" Schultz (Lionel Stander) claims the man who knocked out him and the champ was "bigger than Canary." Schultz, who often spouts malapropisms, is referring to Primo Carnera, who, at 6' 9", was the biggest boxer of his day.
First movie for Anthony Quinn.
Producer Samuel Goldwyn bought the rights for the property in the mid-1940s for his remake The Kid from Brooklyn, as well as the original negative and almost all existing prints, and destroyed them.
The movie was originally planed as a vehicle for Jack Oakie, Gertrude Michael and Edward Everett Horton. When it was decided that it would be a Harold Lloyd picture instead, Horton was replaced by Adolphe Menjou. Instead of Helen Mack, originally Sally Blane was cast. Due to illness, Ida Lupino was replaced by Dorothy Wilson.
When a suitable white horse for Burheigh could not be found, make-up artists were called upon to bleach a dark-colored horse blonde.
When producer Samuel Goldwyn bought the rights to the property in the mid-1940s for his remake, The Kid from Brooklyn (with Danny Kaye in the lead role), he also bought the original negative and almost all existing prints, and destroyed them. Harold Lloyd, however, had preserved his own original nitrate release print, which became the source for the new digital video transfer used by TCM and subsequent DVD releases.