The name of an Italian woman in an article read aloud is given as Signora Bacciagalupe. This is an Italian-American slang word meaning "moron."
The film brought Humphrey Bogart his first star billing, in only his second year at Warner Bros., but when he made it in July 1936, his career seemed to be going nowhere. Part of his problem was the fact that studio head Jack L. Warner didn't like him. Not only did he consider the actor disrespectful and ungrateful, but he also resented having to hire him in the first place. Leslie Howard had refused to sign for the film version of his Broadway hit The Petrified Forest (1936) unless his friend Bogart got to repeat his stage role as a psychotic gangster. If others at Warner's hadn't seen the actor's potential, Warner would have continued offering him thankless roles like John Phillips in The Great O'Malley in hopes of goading the actor into walking out on his contract.
O'Malley is depicted as working out of the NYPD's 7th Precinct, which covers the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. That is also what is shown on the map in the captain's office. At the time of this film, the station house was located at 118 Clinton Street. It moved to 19 1/2 Pitt Street c.1973 and the old house was demolished.
The trio of Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan and Pat O'Brien also appeared in San Quentin (1937) and Angels with Dirty Faces (1938).