Howard Hawks's first film to be shot in Europe, it was beset with problems. The German winter was unbearably cold, and most of the cast and crew fell ill after filming three months in Germany, and reached the Shepperton Studios in London, England. Ann Sheridan caught pleurisy (which developed into pneumonia); Randy Stuart was stricken with jaundice; Cary Grant contracted hepatitis with jaundice; and Hawks broke out in unexplained hives. Production was shut down for three months while Grant convalesced; it resumed only after he was able to regain around 37 pounds. Hawks best summed up the lapse in production: "Cary ran into a haystack on a motorcycle and came out weighing twenty pounds less."
Despite his illness, Cary Grant thoroughly enjoyed making the film, calling it "the best comedy I've ever done."
For the portion of the picture in which he dresses as a WAC, Cary Grant wanted to play the character with effeminate gestures, but Howard Hawks convinced him it would be funnier if he just acted like a man in women's clothes.
Calling upon his vaudevillian roots, Cary Grant insisted upon doing his own stunts, including one in which he was lifted up by a railroad-crossing gate. Ann Sheridan even got into the act, driving a 400-pound motorcycle with Grant in the sidecar for a sequence. She navigated the bike expertly, except for an unfortunate run-in with a goose: its death terribly upset the actress but, despite this, Sheridan had a positive experience making the film.
Howard Hawks was given license to cast whomever he wanted in the supporting roles, so he cast his current girlfriend, Marion Marshall, in the role of Lt. Kitty Lawrence.