Cecil B. DeMille was pressured to drop Ancaria's seductive dance in the orgy scene by Will H. Hays of the Hays Office, but DeMille adamantly refused. Still, censors often cut out gruesome parts of the film, particularly, the cart carrying dead bodies out of the arena, a gorilla dancing around a semi-nude girl, elephants stomping Christians and picking them up with their tusks, crocodiles about to eat a bound girl, etc. These scenes are all in the restored version.
Reportedly, when Cecil B. DeMille heard the booming voice of John Carradine while walking down Hollywood Boulevard, he chased him down the street until he caught up with the unemployed actor, who wound up doing five features for him.
Fredric March said of co-star Claudette Colbert, "She was a hot woman in [the film]--a hot, hot woman! When she worked herself up, she put Marilyn [Marilyn Monroe], Jean [Jean Harlow], Ava [Ava Gardner], Kim [Kim Novak], all of them in the shade."
Fredric March was "hit on" by Charles Laughton, who was gay, during the filming of this picture. March recalled to writer Lawrence Quirk that Laughton always made him nervous and uncomfortable, especially when he used to try to look up his toga.
When the movie opened nationally on 2/10/33, there was a "bank holiday" because of the Depression. With all the banks closed, theater managers accepted IOUs from patrons wishing to see the movie, and Cecil B. DeMille reported most of those were eventually redeemed.