Although the film failed commercially, it was successful in launching the hit song "Girl Talk" by Neal Hefti.

The film opens with Harlow as a struggling extra and bit actress supporting a greedy stepfather Marino and a loving but oblivious mother "Mama Jean".

Many actresses were reported to have been cast as Harlow in different biopics, such as Cleo Moore for Columbia and Jayne Mansfield for Fox, but both of these projects fell through.

The widescreen Technicolor film, produced by Joseph E. Levine, was made on a $2.5 million budget, and was supported by a wide-reaching publicity campaign.

The previous year, Carroll Baker had played a fictionalized version of Harlow dubbed "Rina Marlowe" in the smash-hit film The Carpetbaggers starring George Peppard and Alan Ladd, which had also been produced by Joseph E. Levine.