Trivia

This marked the end of James Cagney's cycle of gangster films for Warner Bros. Cagney wanted to diversify his roles: he would not play a gangster again until White Heat (1949), ten years later.

This film is responsible for popularizing the phrase "The Roaring Twenties" to refer to the historical decade from 1920 to 1929. Today, there is a misconception that this phrase was used during the decade itself. However, the phrase did not become popular until the 1940s. During the 1920s, contemporary labels for the era were "the Jazz Age" and "the Plastic Age." Both were later purloined by Hollywood screenwriters to serve as film titles: The Jazz Age (1929) and The Plastic Age (1925). Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald is credited with popularizing "the Jazz Age" as an era-specific label.

This film sparked a nostalgia craze. Radio stations began playing 1920s music. Producer Mark Hellinger appeared on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall radio show, and singer Kate Smith promoted the film on all of her radio programs. Both Life and Look magazines published "Roaring Twenties" layouts. Concerned by this societal craze, film censors became reluctant to approve future cinematic depictions of the 1920s for fear of "glamorizing the wickedness" of the Prohibition era.

The censors demanded that the screenplay insert extended scenes of Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) as an unshaven, alcoholic bum in order to demonstrate that crime does not pay.

Based on the life of bootlegger Larry Fay. Unlike James Cagney's Eddie Bartlett, however, Fay was 6'3", long-jawed, and gangly. Also, Fay died on New Year's Day of 1932. Dwindling finances had forced him to cut costs at his New York nightclub, the El Fay. After Fay told the doorman at the club that his pay was going to be reduced, the doorman pulled a revolver and shot him four times. Fay collapsed backward onto a sofa and died. The character of Panama Smith was partially based on nightclub hostess Texas Guinan, who was Larry Fay's partner in the El Fay.