Norma Shearer plays Juliet in the "Romeo and Juliet" sketch, with John Gilbert as Romeo. Shearer would later play Juliet, opposite Leslie Howard as Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, the last movie produced by her husband, Irving Thalberg, before his untimely death.
During the singing of "Singing in the Rain" Buster Keaton is seen, but is not singing because he was still a silent star.
First filmed performance of "Singin' in the Rain". This sequence inspired the opening credits of Singin' in the Rain.
First on film appearance of comedian Jack Benny.
One of the films cited as contributing to the collapse of 'John Gilbert''s career after audiences heard his high-pitching speaking voice. Apparently, Gilbert's Romeo & Juliet sequence inspired the "talkie disaster" sequence in Singin' in the Rain.
Reportedly features every major MGM star of the day with the exception of Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro and Lon Chaney. Garbo was slated to appear in the film, which was supposed to be her talkie debut, in a scene from George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan", but the idea was later scrapped when Garbo decided that _Anna Christie_ was to be her first sound film.
The version shown on Turner Classic Movies is the sound-on-disc image with the left side noticeably cropped off in order to accommodate a sound-on-film track, with the result that all the ensembles appear to be photographed off center, which was not the case as the film was originally presented.