* Mister Roberts was followed by a film sequel, Ensign Pulver, in 1964, with Robert Walker Jr. taking over the Lemmon role. It also starred Burl Ives as Captain Morton, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman and Jack Nicholson.
* The author of the novel, Thomas Heggen, suffering from depression, committed suicide, in 1949, just a year after the play opened.
* The film was remade for television in 1984 as a live telecast, an extremely rare procedure for that period, and starred Robert Hays, Kevin Bacon, Charles Durning, Marilu Henner, Howard Hesseman, and Joe Pantoliano. The show was directed by Melvin Bernhardt. There was also a short-lived NBC television series in 1965, featuring Roger Smith, Steve Harmon and Richard X. Slattery.
* In his 1982 autobiography, My Life, Henry Fonda stated that (in his opinion) as good as the movie was, the play was even better.
* L. Ron Hubbard claimed (without much evidence) that Mister Roberts was based on him and his career aboard the combat support ship USS Algol. However, Hubbard never served aboard Algol in a combat area, transferring to shore duty before it sailed for Okinawa. (Another possible source for Mister Roberts is Mack McKinnie, who was a big band musician before the war and served as a naval officer in the Pacific.)
* The vessel which played the role of USS RELUCTANT (or "the Bucket") in the movie was in fact a light cargo vessel or AKL which was not even a USN vessel at all in WWII. It was actually a US Army FS class cargo vessel several of which were transferred to the Navy after WWII ended. As it was , an AKL carried a much smaller crew that the USS VIRGO which Thomas Heggen served on during the war. In the movie, Mr. Roberts says to Doc that there are "65 men" aboard which would have been far too many for an AKL. Also, the crew when going below to their berthing compartment are shown in the movie to be descending into the cargo hold. It is also reported that the USN AKL that was used to film the exterior scenes in the movie was the USS HEWELL (AKL-14) and the USNS NEW BEDFORD (AKL-17).
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