The film went through several working titles before its release, including 'Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition', 'Once Upon a Hero', and 'The Little Marine'.

This was the eighth and final film Preston Sturges made for Paramount Pictures, though The Great Moment, filmed earlier, was actually released after it.

Paramount wanted to replace actress Ella Raines during production, feeling she didn't look like a small-town girl and lacked box-office draw, but Sturges refused to remove her after filming had already begun and publicity had gone out.

Filming began on July 14, 1943 and continued through September 11 of that year; Sturges designed the film to be relatively small scale and reused sets left over from The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.

After Sturges' contract with Paramount ended and he left before the film was fully edited, producer Buddy DeSylva recut it following an unsuccessful New York preview; after a second unsuccessful preview, DeSylva accepted Sturges' offer to return unpaid and rewrite the script, with retakes directed by Sturges from April 7 to April 11, 1944.

In the scene where the Marines leave the Oakdale station, a billboard visible behind them advertises The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, the film Sturges made immediately before this one, also starring Eddie Bracken.

The film was selected by the Library of Congress in 2015 for preservation in the National Film Registry for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and was named one of the New York Times' 'Ten Best Films of 1944.'

Paramount was reportedly concerned about Sturges' repeated use of the same supporting actors, his so-called 'stock company', fearing audiences would tire of seeing the same faces, but Sturges refused to stop using them, saying these actors 'had a moral right to work in my subsequent pictures.'