Trivia

In the interchange between Spaulding and Ravelli near the end of the film, Spaulding refers to "Chic Sale". Chic Sale was a vaudeville performer well-known to audiences in the 1930s. His name, however, had a parallel meaning. It had become a euphemism for an outhouse. Groucho Marx may have thought the reference as a way around the Hays Office code. The comedian Soupy Hines changed his name to Soupy Sales in honor of the original Sale. His birth name was Milton Supman.

The decision to cast Lillian Roth in this film was, in essence, a mild rebuke or punishment for the young star. Roth had proven difficult to work with while filming Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan (1930), and Paramount head B.P. Schulberg decided to put Roth in this film. Schulberg told Roth "We're sending you back to New York to be kicked in the rear by the Marx Brothers until you learn to behave." The brothers' antics had the intended effect on Roth, who recalled that her experiences working on the film were "one step removed from the circus."

In 1957, Paramount forgot to renew the soundtrack rights which reverted back to the authors of the play. (The studio did renew the picture rights, though.) As a result, the film could not legally be seen in the USA until 1974, when Universal, which had since purchased Paramount's film library, was persuaded by fan requests to re-release it.

Several of Groucho Marx lines were cut on demand of the Hays office, including one line from the song "Hooray For Captain Spaulding." In the finished film, Margaret Dumont sings "He was the only white man to cover every acre," followed by a very obvious cut. Removed was the rest of the lyric, "I think I'll try to make her." (This line is restored in the Blu-ray edition.)

The movie's line "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." was voted as the #53 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).