This marked the second time that the then 14-year-old Sidney Lumet worked on a film and is one of only his four screen acting roles. He would not appear in another feature film until The Manchurian Candidate (2004) 65 years later.
In 1974, Sidney Lumet described his experience working on ...One Third of a Nation... (1939): "I hated acting in movies and I've understood all about actors ever since...I knew that I could never be a really good actor."
The title is a reference to President Franklin Roosevelt's second inaugural address on January 20, 1937: "I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished."
This film has been preserved by the Library of Congress.
A large poster for one of Sylvia Sidney's previous films,Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935), is prominently displayed during the course of this film.