"Little" Mary Pickford, the silent film star, liked Ernst Lubitsch's tasteful touches of suggestiveness enough to ask him to direct her in a film that would help her show more maturity on screen. But she did not get along with Lubitsch himself nor did she appreciate 'Rosita,' the film they made together. In later years she usually ranked it with her worst films.
Cary Grant was also considered to play the leading part, but in 1932 he was still too young for the part. Ernst Lubitsch wanted the touch of experience in the actor face, so he chose the 42-year-old Herbert Marshall and 33-year-old Kay Francis who can supply that look.
Although Miriam Hopkins got top billing, she's got the least money of the three stars: $1,750/week. Kay Francis got $4,000/week with 6 weeks guarantee and Herbert Marshall got $3,500/week.
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.
The most widely known of director Ernst Lubitsch's films. The "Lubitsch touch" as his style was called, emphasized subtlety and elegance, expressive of good taste, and being economical about what does and doesn't need to be shown, relying on the audience to tell the difference
The movie was not approved for re-issue in 1935 when the Production Code was being rigorously enforced.
The original play, "A Becsuletes Megtalalo" (The Honest Finder), opened in Budapest in December 1931.
The scenes in which Herbert Marshall is running up and down the stairs at Madame Colet's were done with a double who is only seen from the waist down. Mr. Marshall lost a leg in WWI and although it was almost impossible to notice that he used a prosthesis, he could not perform any action that called for physical agility.
This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1991.
This movie was popular both with critics and with audiences, but was made before the enforcement of the production code. After 1935, it was withdrawn from circulation and was not seen again until 1968. The film was never available on videocassette and only became available on DVD in 2003.