Gordon De Main as "The Prince of Wales," Frank Dunn as "Disraeli," May Beatty and Carol Tevis are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie.
Although the stated onscreen source credits "a series of stories" by E.W. Hornung, he actually wrote a novel called "Stingaree," which probably contained most of the story presented.
In the original version, as released in May 1934, stenciled color was used to enhance lamp and fireside effects, but was generally criticized at the time as being of an earlier, bygone era of filmaking.
Irene Dunne, a professionally trained operatic mezzo-soprano, did her own singing for the film.
Rather than build their own opera-house set for the final concert sequence, RKO went to Universal and shot the sequence on the standing set built for the 1925 Lon Chaney, Sr. version of "The Phantom of the Opera."
This movie is one of a set of six films owned by the estate of Merian C. Cooper, and the rights to show it were caught up in legal red tape. TCM eventually acquired the rights and showed the movie in May 2007.