Fans of this film have wondered as to the identity of the two women who are dining at the casino early in the film. They enjoy a lengthy sequence when Wheeler & Woolsey sit at their table and flirt with them as the two women feed them straight-lines so Wheeler & Woolsey can give the comedic rejoinder. The girl playing straight for Bert Wheeler is Audree Henderson. (Though the trade papers of the day would occasionally misspell her first name as Audrey.) She was a contract player at "R.K.O." at the time The Cuckoos was filmed. Audree later became the fourth wife of film director A. Edward Sutherland from 8 January 1933, until they were divorced on 11 December 1935. The actress playing straight for Robert Woolsey is Betty Recklaw. She appeared in small roles in a number of films made for different studios during the late twenties and early thirties.
Three 2-strip technicolor sequences all occur during the final 30 minutes of the film, totaling 833 feet, were preserved at YCM in 1991, and survive intact in the TCM print.
This film was very successful at the box office, earning "RKO" a profit of $335,000 ($4.8M in 2017) according to studio records.
There is some question about the authors of the song "Wherever You Are." Both the AFI Catalog and The Motion Picture Guide list them as Charles Tobias and Cliff Friend. However, published sheet music (Cinema Sheet Music, McFarland, 1991) indicate it was Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar. Tobias and Friend did write a song called "Wherever You Are," but the lyrics are entirely different than those sung in this movie.
Three songs were written for the movie but were not used: "Knock Knees" (Music by Harry Ruby & Lyrics by Bert Kalmar), "Looking for the Lovelight in Your Eyes" (Music by Harry Ruby & Lyrics by Bert Kalmar) and "If I Were a Traveling Salesman" (Music by Joe Burke & Lyrics by Al Dubin). The songs were used in "Top Speed (1930)."