Erich von Stroheim's excesses on the film included bringing in a real Viennese streetcar to be used in street scenes (a Los Angeles streetcar simply wouldn't do, said the director). Also, for the brief scene where an actor playing the Austrian Emperor steps out of a hotel and climbs into his horse-drawn carriage, von Stroheim had Universal Studios buy an actual carriage used by Austrian Emperor Franz Josef and ship it to Hollywood.
A Super Jewel Production. Universal, lacking a proprietary theater chain, used a 3-tiered branding system to market its feature product to independent theater owners: Red Feather (low-budget programmers), Bluebird (mainstream releases) and Jewel (prestige productions). As one of the few "Super Jewels", this film was virtually assured special treatment by exhibitors who would normally demand higher roadshow ticket prices. Universal would cease to brand its films by late 1929.
During production, Erich von Stroheim was fired and replaced by Rupert Julian. Julian re-shot most of the scenes that had already been filmed, and the story was altered from von Stroheim's original vision. The only scenes filmed by von Stroheim that survive in the film are the opening scenes with the count arising and dressing and his conversation with Gisella, the wild loving cup party, and the count bringing Agnes to Madame Elvira's parlor and her seeing a piano and music about how she wanted to play but could not afford lessons. The entire footage accounts for less than ten minutes.
During the year-long production of Erich von Stroheim's Foolish Wives, producer Irving Thalberg had been unable to fire the megalomaniac director because he was the star of the movie as well. Thanks to von Stroheim's excesses in sets and costumes and his refusal to stop filming new scenes, the cost of the film ballooned to over $1 million (an astronomical sum for the day) before Thalberg was able to shut down production on it. For this film, von Stroheim promised to bring it in on time and under budget. Thalberg didn't believe him, and insisted that silent star Norman Kerry, not von Stroheim, should be the star of the movie. After six weeks of shooting, it was clear to Thalberg that von Stroheim's excesses and haphazard shooting schedule were going to take the movie over budget again. Thalberg fired von Stroheim, and replaced him with director Rupert Julian.