One of the changes from the 1937 version is changing the character of the Bishop to a Cardinal. Long-time MGM contract player Lewis Stone played the part. Ironically, Stone played both leads in the 1922 version of The Prisoner of Zenda.
The film used the same basic script that was written for the 1937 David O. Selznick film version, The Prisoner of Zenda, with Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll. Although many scenes and camera set-ups are exactly the same, there are notable differences.
The original New York production of The Prisoner of Zenda opened at the Lyceum Theater on September 4, 1895.
The Ruritanian Royal Train seen briefly as Rassendyl and the others travel to Strelsau for the coronation is stock footage of the Salzkammergut Lokalbahn, a narrow-gauge railway in the Salzburg area of Austria, that closed in 1957.
This version's music score is an adaptation of the one composed by Alfred Newman for the 1937 version.