The film now exists in a 4k digital restoration, shown at London's National Film Theatre in February 2017; it's in superb condition, sharp, well graded and not a mark on it. It really does look as if it was shot yesterday. The sound is extremely good for the period; the stunning opening tracking show has some complex mixing as the camera tracks past various bars and different bands are heard playing (rather like the restored opening to La Soif du mal (1958)).
The costs of shooting for four days in Havana were shared by MGM with the understanding that the studio could use atmospheric exterior shots in their upcoming production of "Cuban Love Song." The Cuban embassy later protested the Havana locations although the setting was supposedly a mythical island. American and British groups both objected to the heavy drinking and generally the film had its share of censorship problems.
Both Phillips Holmes and Harry Sweet would later perish as a result of airplane crashes.
An experienced pilot since he was a teenager, Sweet took writer Howard "Hal" Davitt and Vera Williams, a 20-year-old actress who used the stage mane Claudette Ford, on a flying trip on June 8, 1933, to Big Bear Lake in San Bernardino County to scout film locations. At about 7:15 p.m., the plane lost power and nose-dived into the lake. Davitt and Williams were killed on impact and Sweet drowned.
In WWII Phillips Holmes enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force toward the end of 1941. Phillips attended the Air Ground School at Winnipeg. Following graduation, he and six of his classmates were transferred but the plane carrying the men en route to their new destination (Ottawa) collided with another in Ontario killing all aboard.
An experienced pilot since he was a teenager, Sweet took writer Howard "Hal" Davitt and Vera Williams, a 20-year-old actress who used the stage mane Claudette Ford, on a flying trip on June 8, 1933, to Big Bear Lake in San Bernardino County to scout film locations. At about 7:15 p.m., the plane lost power and nose-dived into the lake. Davitt and Williams were killed on impact and Sweet drowned.
In WWII Phillips Holmes enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force toward the end of 1941. Phillips attended the Air Ground School at Winnipeg. Following graduation, he and six of his classmates were transferred but the plane carrying the men en route to their new destination (Ottawa) collided with another in Ontario killing all aboard.
Russell Gleason (whose father was playing a featured role in the film), Walter Abel, Russell Hardie, James Murray, Dean Jagger, and George Brent were all tested for the role of Dan, which ultimately went to Phillips Holmes.
The slot machine in the bar is a Mills "Dewey" model, first made in 1899. It was named after the famous U.S. Navy Admiral George Dewey (1837-1917).
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