In her December 1972 interview with Leonard Maltin in "Film Fan Monthly," Madge Evans gave the following testimony on the atmosphere on the set during filming: "That was a rather hectic picture, with him [Lowell Sherman] not taking the directing seriously, George Barnes falling madly in love with Joan [Joan Blondell] so he could hardly see anybody but [her]. Ina Claire was very much in love with John Gilbert (this was before they were married) and every time she got into a costume that she thought she looked well in, particularly the bridal costume at the end of the film, she disappeared from the lot, because she had driven off to Metro to show [John] how enchanting she looked. I went into that film very quickly, because Carole Lombard was supposed to do the part I played, but she became ill and I replaced her."
Adapted from a Broadway play by Zoe Akins, "The Greeks Had a Word for It." Since it dealt with a group of modern-day courtesans, the title was on the Hays Office banned list. Therefore, the last word in the title was changed to "Them." The original Broadway production opened at the Sam H. Harris Theater on 9/25/1930 and ran for 253 performances.
The studio originally wanted Jean Harlow for this film, after her success in Red-Headed Woman (1932) and The Public Enemy (1931), but she was under contract to Howard Hughes and he refused to loan her out.
The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
The title of the print viewed was "Three Broadway Girls," which was the film's re-release title. The picture's working title was "The Greeks Had a Word for It."