When asked in 1974 why he made a film about Coca Cola, Billy Wilder responded, "I just think Coca-Cola to be funny. And when I drink it, it seems even funnier to me."
While watching "the blonde lady" dance at The Hotel Potemkin", one of the Russians takes off his shoe and bangs on the table with it. The banging eventually causes the photograph of Nikita Khrushchev the fall out of its frame to reveal the picture of Josef Stalin, his predecessor, behind it. Khrushchev, who is mentioned several times in the movie, is supposed to have taken his shoe off and banged on the table with it at the United Nations.