The movie was filmed in April-June 1942, but not released until 1944. Preview audiences found the film confusing, and Executive Producer Buddy G. De Sylva re-edited it over Preston Sturges's objections.
Sturges intended this to be a much more serious film. Panicked by some inconclusive reviews, Paramount cut it as a traditional Sturges comedy. The director, no longer associated with the studio, asked former friend and studio chief Frank Freeman to entitle the film "Triumph Over Pain," and he wrote and offered to write, direct, and appear in a prologue gratis. Paramount did not want to expend the additional $50,000 this would incur, and they ignored his offer.
Paramount purchased the rights to an MGM short, "Life of William Morton, Discoverer of Anesthesia." The short was evidently intended to be an entry in John Nesbitt's Passing Parade" series but was never filmed.
The film's working titles include: "Triumph over Pain," "Morton, the Magnificent," "Great without Glory," and "Immortal Secret."
The film was initially proposed in 1939, to be directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by William LeBaron and Arthur Hornblow, Jr. Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan would star. After Cooper decided to leave Paramount, Walter Huston was considered for the part of Morton before McCrea was ultimately cast.