Irving Thalberg, production chief at MGM--director King Vidor's home studio--would not back the project. Charles Chaplin was interested in the film and was able to secure a United Artists release for it. Unfortunately, banks were reluctant to back a film with that subject matter.
The final ditch-digging sequences took 10 days to stage and shoot. In his autobiography, King Vidor describes his technique for shooting the final ditch digging sequence: "We dispensed with all sound-recording equipment and used instead a metronome and a bass drum. The picks came down on the counts of one and three, the shovels scooped dirt on count two and tossed it on four. Each scene was enacted in strict 4/4 time with the metronome's speed gradually increasing on each cut. When the increased speed of the metronome resounding through the bass drum had driven the diggers to their most feverish pitch, we then resorted to decreasing the camera speed gradually, which in turn further increased the tempo of the workers."
Louie's reward of $500 would equate to about $9,400 in 2018.
After being rejected by MGM, Director King Vidor took the project to RKO and worked out a deal where he would forgo his director's salary, but receive a $25,000 advance and 50% of the gross over double the negative cost, and post a $50,000 bond to cover cost overruns on a $250,000 budget. The deal was nixed by RKO's legal department when they realized Vidor could profit more than the studio. Vidor then set up his own production company, Viking Productions, with himself as the sole owner and started the picture with $90,000 of his own money.
King Vidor: as one of the men living on the farm. He's the farmer on the irrigation ditch shouting "Let it go!"