The film was based on the true story of Robert E. Burns. It sticks basically to the facts except for two instances: Burns actually did steal the $5.29 in order to eat, and he finally succeeded in evading the Georgia legal system with the help of three New Jersey governors. Burns actually slipped into Hollywood and worked for a few weeks on the film, but ultimately the stress and risk were too much, and he fled back to the safety of New Jersey. The book and film helped bring about the collapse of the brutal chain gang system in Georgia. Warner Bros. took a big chance on the film, as social commentary was not normally done in Hollywood pictures. However, this film was a critical and financial success and helped establish Warners as the studio with a social conscience - it also helped save the financially ailing company. Even though Georgia was never specifically named in the film, numerous lawsuits were filed against the studio, the film was banned in Georgia, and the studio's head and the film's director were told that should they ever find themselves in Georgia they would be treated to a dose of the "social evil" they so roundly denounced.
The film caused a lot of controversy, actually leading to the pardon of its main character, Robert E. Burns, who was still on the lam when it first hit theaters.
It is rumored that the final fade came as an accident. Director Mervyn LeRoy had planned to go to a blackout after the final line. During rehearsals, a light blew, taking the fuse with it. The resultant slow fade, starting just before the final line, was so powerful that LeRoy decided to shoot the film exactly that way. However, some sources dispute this as a manufactured myth after-the-fact, as the scene is described exactly this way, with the fade, in the original shooting script, which was finalized before shooting had begun.
Paul Muni conducted several intensive meetings with Robert E. Burns in Burbank in order to capture the way the real fugitive walked and talked, in essence, to catch "the smell of fear".
Warners' highest paid director, Roy Del Ruth, was assigned, but the contract director refused the assignment. In a lengthy memo to supervising producer Hal B. Wallis, Del Ruth explained his decision: "This subject is terribly heavy and morbid . . . there is not one moment of relief anywhere." Del Ruth further argued that the story "lacks box-office appeal", and that offering a depressing story to the public seemed ill-timed, given the harsh reality of the Great Depression outside the walls of the local neighborhood cinema.