Lewis Stone played the 'heavy' - the Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr - in the 1923 version of this film. He came back to play the older character of "Georges de Valmorin" in this version.
A final scene in which the Marquis de Maynes is killed at the storming of the Bastille was cut in editing, as was another final one with Queen Marie Antoinette.
Favorite film of US Senator John Kerry who even named his yacht "Scaramouche".
Fernand Gravet was announced for this film by MGM in 1938, but the film was not made.
Having discovered Moreau (Stewart Granger) taking fencing lessons in his own house, Noel, Marquis de Maynes (Mel Ferrer) challenges him to a duel, during which a large iron chandelier falls towards Granger as he lays on the floor. As originally scripted, the heavy chandelier would halt inches from Granger's face. The director encouraged Granger to do it "first take" and not rehearse the scene or test the safety rope, which was considered sound. Granger balked and said he wanted to see a test first. On the first test, the rope snapped and the iron chandelier crashed through the floor of the set. The scene was reshot with Granger rolling out from under the chandelier as it fell towards him.The sound of the swords clashing didn't sound correct so the sounds were re-recorded using glass cylinders.
In the final duel between Andre Moreau and the Marquis de Maynes, Andre (Stewart Granger) jumps at the Duc from the back of a row of theatre chairs. During the filming of this scene, Granger narrowly missed serious injury to his groin when he landed astride the next row of chairs, and filming had to be halted temporarily.
In the original novel by Rafael Sabatini, the climactic duel occurred outdoors. The shooting script had planned for the duel to occur in a garden, until someone had the idea of moving it to the theater. In the climactic theatre scene, a shot where Andre Moreau swings on a rope to arrive on stage was cut. Still in, however, is the later shot where he uses the rope to swing up to the balcony.
Originally both Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner were supposed to be in this film, but had to decline due to other commitments.
The filmmakers had trouble with the censors over two issues: the suggestion of possible incest between the principals and the suggestion that Andre and Lenore were having a sexual relationship outside of marriage.
The horseback chase scenes were filmed in San Francisco's famed Golden Gate Park. At first, we see the characters spotting each other at Lloyd Lake near the "Portal of the Past", then the "Rainbow Falls" on John F. Kennedy Drive, up the steps in front of the Band Concourse and towards the Japanese Tea Garden. All scenes beautifully photographed in Technicolor in semi-fog. The duel scene was shot at Lindley Meadows, near the Polo Field just south of Stow Lake. This is the same area used in Star Trek IV as the landing place for the Enterprise crew in the captured and cloaked "Bird of Prey" ship.
This movie contains what is reported to be the longest fencing duel ever caught on film, the climactic fight that ranges throughout the theater, from the balcony boxes, to the lobby, through the main seats, backstage and finally on the stage itself.