The "glass heart" machine used to revive John Ellman in the film was said to be "nearly a prefect replica" of an actual perfusion pump - a device designed to keep organs alive outside an organism's body - which had been built by Charles A. Lindbergh when the legendary pilot and engineer was working with a Nobel-winning scientist at New York's Rockefeller Institute research labs in the mid-1930s.
Warner wanted to cash in on the Frankenstein craze after the release of La Fiancée de Frankenstein (1935) and Le mort qui marche (1936) was the result. Not only does Boris Karloff remove his false teeth in his non-speaking scenes to get that gaunt Frankenstein's monster look, but his post-resurrection makeup pays clear homage to Jack P. Pierce's iconic monster makeup. Karloff is even strapped to a stretcher just as in the original Frankenstein, and then spends half of the film lumbering around like the famous monster. And it could have been worse --- the original script had Ellman being mute after his resurrection, but Karloff sent the script back to the writers.
It has been stated in later years by film historians that director Michael Curtiz made this film as quickly as possible so he could proceed to make other, more important films.
The accident scene in the film was shot in Griffith Park.
Filming began on November 23, 1935 (Boris Karloff's 48th birthday) and lasted 18 days, finishing on December 23, 1935.