The film's working title was Happy Times. A November 8, 1947 Los Angeles Times news item noted that Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer were working on a script for the picture, but their contribution to the final film is doubtful. The Inspector General marked Danny Kaye's first starring performance for Warner Bros. Nikolai Gogol's play was also the basis for the 1915 and 1952 Russian productions entitled Revizor, two Czech films, released in 1933 and 1937, and the 1936 Chinese film Mad Night.