Following the successful telecasts of Othello (1922) and Aquila nera (1925), New York City's WJZ (Channel 7), began a weekly series of Sunday evening silent film feature presentations, shown more or less in their entirety, which aired intermittently for the next twelve months. This feature was initially broadcast Sunday 21 November 1948, and, like the rest of the series, aired simultaneously on sister stations WFIL (Channel 6) (Philadelphia) and freshly launched WAAM (Channel 13) (Baltimore), an innovation at the time; the following week's selection would be The Pony Express (1925).
While shooting in Tijuana, Mexico, Douglas Fairbanks and the film crew were arrested by Mexican soldiers, but were not told why. It turned out that the soldiers belonged to one of the militias fighting each other for control of Mexico during the Mexican revolution; being short of money, they thought that the American movie company would pay to have their star and crew released. After payment of an appropriate "fine", the film crew packed up, dashed back across the border and resumed filming in San Diego.