According to the original review published in 'Variety' 27 November 1929, only 21 minutes of the total running time were not in Technicolor, a 17 minute section of Part One, and a four minute opening of Part Two.
At $850,000 this was the most expensive talking picture made in 1929.
At it's New York City premiere at the Winter Garden Theatre, some musical numbers were projected on a larger, wider screen, by a system called Magnascope, which had been in occasional use since 1924.
In once scene, Sid Silvers does an imitation of Al Jolson. Though Jolson was one of the top stars at Warner Brothers in 1929, he is not among the rest of the studio's lineup in this film.
The film contains John Barrymore's only screen appearance as Richard III, one of his greatest stage successes. However, the excerpt is not from the play "Richard III", but from William Shakespeare's "Henry VI: Part III", a "prequel" to "Richard III" in which he also appears.
Two reels of color footage survive.
Vitaphone production reels #3575-3589
Warner Brothers announced in 1929 that it was going to film this entirely in Two-Strip Technicolor. The Technicolor company immediately said that not enough cameras were available for use, so only parts of the film were shot in Technicolor. One year later King of Jazz was released entirely in Two-Strip Technicolor.