According to the book "The RKO Story", this film cost $237,000 more than it grossed in its original release, but it finally broke even with the box office from a 1949 re-release, paired with La diosa del fuego (1935).
Much of the music in the battles and the final cataclysm is taken directly from King Kong (1933), El hijo de Kong (1933), and La diosa del fuego (1935).
Hairy-chested Preston Foster was required to submit to a full body wax before appearing bare-chested in this film.
Despite all the spectacle, the movie was a box-office flop and required several re-releases, often on a double-bill with La diosa del fuego (1935) to earn back its cost.
The screenplay was by Ruth Rose, who also had written the screenplay for King Kong (1933). Despite the title, it was not based on the 1834 novel by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. She was the wife of director Ernest B. Schoedsack.