It was based on a 1911 play The Little Cafe by Tristan Bernard which had previously been adapted into a 1919 French silent film.

[1] Paramount produced a separate French-language version Le Petit Café, also starring Chevalier, which broke records for an opening-day attendance in Paris.

[2] The film introduced the song "My Ideal", composed by Richard A. Whiting and Newell Chase with lyrics by Leo Robin, which became a jazz standard.

Albert Loriflan, a waiter in a Paris cafe, unexpectedly inherits a large sum of money from a wealthy relative.

His unscrupulous boss, Philibert, refuses to release him from his long-term contract in the hope that Albert will buy him off with a large payment.