The song "Beyond the Blue Horizon," introduced here, became Jeanette MacDonald's theme song for the rest of her life. During World War Ii she changed the line, "Beyond the blue horizon lies the rising sun" to " ... lies the shining sun" because the Rising Sun was the symbol of America's enemy, Japan.
A silent version was produced for theaters not yet equipped for sound films. This version runs 20 minutes shorter than the sound version. The silent version was long thought lost until 1968. Historian and film preservationist David Shepard donated a copy, along with many other Paramount titles on nitrate film, to the American Film Institute.
Loosely based on the Booth Tarkington novel (1900) that was also source for the Rudolph Valentino drama Monsieur Beaucaire (1924) and the Bob Hope comedy Monsieur Beaucaire (1946). And there really is an English operetta (1918) based on the book, composed by André Messager, later adapted to French. It looks like recordings are only available for the French version. As of this writing (2017), both movies are available on DVD, but Valentino's looks like it's in public domain.
When Paramount requested approval starting in 1935 for the Pre Code Lubitsch titles to be rereleased, Monte Carlo was the only one that was not rejected by the newly installed Production Code.
The world premiere showing of "Monte Carlo" took place at the Rivoli Theatre in New York city on 27 August 1930.
(New York Sun, ((New York, NY)) 25 August 1930)