Reportedly, the film's director Ken Russell walked out of a revival screening of this movie saying: "What idiot made this?".
Ken Russell plays a director in the film. In his autobiography he explains that the actor who was to play the director was too drunk to work and so Russell played the part himself. Later the actor--who was too drunk to work--filed a complaint and the actors union insisted the scene be re-shot with a "real" actor and union member. This would have been very expensive as the scene involved a battle sequence--but it turned out that Russell who had started as an actor years before he was a director still had an acting union membership--so he was able to pay up his past dues and the scene remained in the film. Russell went to in the later part of his career to play parts in various films for himself and for others.
After the film had debuted the picture's director Ken Russell later said that his choice to make the movie was the biggest mistake of his career.
Rudolf Nureyev said of Rudolph Valentino's films that he saw prior to production in publicity for this picture: "I was pleasantly surprised. Contrary to what I had always heard and read, that Valentino's acting was very primitive, I found him very restrained. While everyone around him was, to our modern eyes, overacting, he was very good and very effective. And of course, he was quite a handsome man. He was one of the first 20th Century idols who brought vicarious romance and passion to many women in his audiences who may not have otherwise experienced it".
Romantic lead co-stars Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips got along so poorly during the making of this film that they were reported to have engaged in an on-set slapping match during shooting of the love scenes.