About ten minutes into the movie, Pomeroy Watson (Lou Costello) gets a ticket for jaywalking. After the cop gives him the ticket, he and Smokey (Bud Abbott) turn around to go back to the base. They pass a baby carriage in front of a store window with a very young girl in it. Pomeroy stops and says, "Hey, Smokey, look at the cute kid". That "cute kid" is Costello's daughter, Carole Costello.
During the "I'll Take the Water" routine, in which the sailors fill their mouths with water in order to spray Lou Costello, Costello actually cracked up and spit his mouthful of water onto the floor, but the take was so funny it was kept in the film.
The movie makes extensive use of miniatures. After the film was completed Lou Costello took one of the battleships and put it in his swimming pool as a souvenir.
This movie was actually filmed after Hold That Ghost (1941), but Universal released it first because the public wanted to see some "service pictures." After this film was released, Universal revamped "Hold That Ghost" to add a romantic subplot and some musical numbers for The Andrews Sisters and Ted Lewis' band, which hadn't been in the original cut.
The group gets assigned to the USS Alabama and sets sail for Pearl Harbor, HI, from San Diego, CA. With the movie being released on 5/30/41, the real USS Alabama (BB-60) was commissioned on 8/16/42 and earned nine battle stars during her service in World War II.