Rudolph Valentino signed onto the film for $350 a week, less than Wallace Beery earned for his small role as a German officer. Metro provided Valentino only with his Argentine gaucho costume and his French soldier's uniform. For the Parisian sequence, Valentino purchased more than twenty-five custom-fitted suits from a New York tailor, which he spent the next year paying for.
Rudolph Valentino's first starring role in a film. He had been an extra and done bit parts since his debut in 1914.
Alice Terry wore a blonde wig during filming. She and Rudolph Valentino spoke French in their scenes to make them more authentic to lip-readers.
Adjusted for inflation, this film is the highest-grossing silent movie ever; it earned $9,183,673 - close to $300 million in 2005 dollars.
President Warren G. Harding and Vice-President Calvin Coolidge, with their respective spouses, attended private screenings of the film.
Prior to editing, the kiss at the end of the tango scene between Rudolph Valentino and Beatrice Dominguez took up 75 feet of film. The scene wasn't in the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez novel, but was added by Rex Ingram to show off Valentino's dancing skills.
This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1995.