Columbia chief Harry Cohn had serious misgivings about this adaptation of Harry Segall's minor stage play. He preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes (e.g., anything featuring the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth). However, Sidney Buchman eventually was able to talk Cohn into forking out for costly celestial sets and Farnsworth's elaborate mansion and also into hiring Robert Montgomery on loan-out from MGM. Buchman was also able to convince Cohn that he had a better appreciation of what the public would pay to see than the Wall Street bankers to whom Cohn answered.
James Gleason was brought on board mainly to polish the dialogue. Gleason had a knack for authentic sounding vernacular language and also happened to be a great actor.
The tune that Joe Pendleton keeps playing (poorly) on his saxophone is "The Last Rose of Summer" - whether he's Pendleton or Farnsworth.
Columbia planned to film a sequel to this picture entitled "Hell Bent for Mr. Jordan", but shelved the project until the original cast could be re-assembled. That picture was never produced.
The working titles of this film were "Heaven Can Wait" and "Mr. Jordan Comes to Town".