Jean Havez was listed as a story writer in several contemporary sources, including the 26 Nov 1921 Exhibitors Herald. The 8 Oct 1921 Exhibitors Trade Review identified T. J. Crizer as the editor.
       The 27 Aug 1921 Motion Picture News announced that Harold Lloyd was "now engaged" in the production of A Sailor-Made Man.
       Principal photography was underway as of early Oct 1921. As noted in the 22 Oct 1921 Exhibitors Trade Review, the film “abound[ed] in trick photography.” The 3 Dec 1921 Moving Picture World referred to A Sailor-Made Man as “expensively made” and noted that it contained “warships and yachts and palaces and one well equipped harem, together with native villages and villagers.”
       The 22 Oct 1921 Motion Picture News reported that the recently completed film was going to be given a "try-out" in four theaters before being shipped East. Three weeks later it was previewed at on board the U.S.S. Frederick, “where six hundred gobs and officers who took part in the picture saw the roles they played.”
       Some sources, including the 25 Nov 1921 Var review and a 17 Dec 1921 Exhibitors Herald item, listed Pathé Exchange as distributor, while others named Pathé collaborator, Associated Exhibitors. According to the 26 Nov 1921 Exhibitors Herald, Associated Exhibitors was set to release the film on Christmas Day 1921. The film was relatively short at four reels in length, but would be sold as a feature, with exhibitors expected to make it “the big attraction on their programs.” As noted in a 24 Dec 1921 Exhibitors Herald item, the picture was comedic actor Harold Lloyd’s longest film, to date, and the 3 Dec 1921 Moving Picture World review called it “his first feature comedy.”
       The 10 Dec 1921 Moving Picture World stated that producer Hal Roach and his wife would accompany Lloyd on a trip to New York City, where the three would attend a showing of A Sailor-Made Man. The film had recently been screened at a private preview in New York.
       According to an item in the 24 Dec 1921 Moving Picture World, promotions included a “special sixteen-page campaign book” with suggestions for exhibitors’ street and lobby displays. Lobby display photographs included eight still photographs in color, a “special 22 by 28 [inch] colored display” and ten black-and-white photographs.
       Although Associated Exhibitors touted the film as one of “the greatest box-office comedies the screen has ever seen,” as noted in the 26 Nov 1921 Moving Picture World, the Var review lamented that it was not among Lloyd’s best work.