This was the first film from the production company of star Rudolph Valentino and his wife Natacha Rambova, who had a small part. Reportedly, Rambova began to rewrite the script almost immediately after filming began, and made such a mess of it that the studio called in veteran screenwriter June Mathis to do a complete rewrite.
Natacha Rambova was initially brought on to design sets and costumes but became "bored" and left to work on another project.
Director Joseph Henabery later admitted that none of the cast members of this film would have been his first choices, had he been given any say in the matter. He also didn't like the script and was very sick throughout the production due to the lack of heating at the studio.
In the original stage production, Judith Anderson had played the Nita Naldi role. The part was significantly altered for Naldi to fit her more exotic, ethnically ambiguous screen persona.