This movie was John Garfield's first film and earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He would receive one other Oscar nomination for Best Actor in "Body and Soul" (1947).
Michael Curtiz found himself in the unenviable position of competing against himself in the Best Director race for the Academy Award, being nominated for both Rêves de jeunesse (1938) and Les anges aux figures sales (1938). The Oscar went to Frank Capra for Vous ne l'emporterez pas avec vous (1938). Curtiz would go on to win his Oscar for Best Director five years later for Casablanca (1942). This wouldn't happen again until 2000 when Steven Soderbergh was nominated for both Erin Brockovich, seule contre tous (2000) and Traffic (2000), winning for the latter.
This was given to studio director Michael Curtiz as a small assignment to tide him over as the bigger profile Les anges aux figures sales (1938) was coming together. (Curtiz was just coming off the huge success of Les aventures de Robin des Bois (1938), one of Warner Brothers' biggest hits.) Much to everyone's surprise, Curtiz delivered a film that was critically acclaimed and a big box office success, earning five Academy Award nominations to three for "Angels with Dirty Faces".