Marshall Neilan was the original director, but he was fired by producer Mary Pickford for showing up too drunk to work. He was replaced by Frank Borzage.
This film originally went into production in 1930 under the title "Forever Yours", which Mary Pickford had intended to be a sound remake of the silent film, Secrets (1924), which had starred Norma Talmadge. After shooting about one-third of the film and spending $300,000 (over $4.2M in 2018), (some sources claim it was "almost completed"), Pickford shut down production and had the film shelved and later destroyed because she was not satisfied with the results. Marshall Neilan had been the director; Kenneth MacKenna played John Carlton (the Leslie Howard role); other cast members included Nella Walker as Aunt Mary (eventually changed to Aunt Susan), (the Doris Lloyd role); Robert Thornby played a cattle rustler; Ed Brady a rancher; Don Alvarado, Ian MacLaren, and Charlotte Walker were also featured members of the cast. The release date was announced as 29 November 1930.
The story of the same title upon which this film is based first appeared in the December 1918 edition of Harper's Bazaar magazine.