During the filming of one of W.C. Fields' scenes, a mild earthquake struck Los Angeles. The earthquake was supposedly captured on film. In the film clip, Fields and his co-stars are speaking their lines on the hotel lobby set, when the picture begins to shake as if the camera is vibrating. A chandelier on the set begins to swing back and forth, and a lamp suddenly falls over. Fields calmly ushers his co-stars off the sound stage, telling them to stay calm and walk slowly. The "earthquake footage" of Fields was played in newsreels across the country in the weeks following the 1933 quake. Nearly forty years later, however, director A. Edward Sutherland admitted that the "earthquake footage" was a hoax concocted by Fields and himself. It was done by rigging wires on the lamp and chandelier, and shaking the camera to simulate an earthquake. Sutherland claimed that he and Fields were amazed when the "earthquake footage" was accepted as genuine by newsreel distributors. "We shared a big laugh and an even bigger drink," the director recalled. To this day, the fake "earthquake footage" is occasionally broadcast and accepted as genuine by entertainment TV shows such as "Access Hollywood." The footage appears in the film Hollywood Out-takes an
Filmed February-April 1933. Bela Lugosi made this feature after "Night of Terror," and before "The Devil's in Love."
In the sequence with the midget car, W.C. Fields remarks that it had belonged to the Postmaster General. This was a shot at Will H. Hays, the former Postmaster General who was then putting together Hollywood's Production Code.
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.
The characters viewed on Dr. Wong's radioscope were popular radio stars of the time.