Marlene Dietrich's own daughter Maria Riva portrayed young Sophia at the beginning of the film and it was her debut in movies.
Marlene Dietrich's and Josef von Sternberg's professional relationship briefly soured during the making of this film. Production delays and von Sternberg's controlling directorial style wore on Dietrich, who had worked almost exclusively with the director since her film debut. The film's poor box office showing exacerbated the discord between the two. When production wrapped, both believed this would be their last project together. However, von Sternberg convinced Dietrich to take the lead in The Devil Is a Woman (1935) the following year. Dietrich would go on to say that was her favorite of all of her films and her admiration for von Sternberg returned. They remained lifelong friends.
The film was a tremendous commercial and financial failure at the time of its release. Paramount blamed the failure on the opulence and excess of the picture while the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. Given the distance of time, modern critics have come to embrace the film and its elaborately-designed sets and impressive crowd sequences.
Film production was reportedly held up for several weeks over Marlene Dietrich's desire to wear a large, fur hat. Costume designer Travis Banton initially refused to relent to Dietrich's demands, because he felt that such a hat was worn by Greta Garbo in Queen Christina (1933) and he did not want to copy the design. Dietrich argued that audiences would not remember what Garbo wore; Banton ultimately relented and Dietrich got her hat.
The commercial failure of this film was so spectacular that it soured the relationship between Paramount and director Josef von Sternberg. Von Sternberg's contract had stipulated that Paramount was due a film of the studio's choosing following the release of this picture; however, the box office returns were so poor that studio heads released von Sternberg from that commitment. Freeing him from the commitment allowed von Sternberg to complete The Devil Is a Woman (1935).