According to Life Magazine, special effects wizard James Basevi was given a budget of $400,000 to create his effects. He spent $150,000 to build a native village with a lagoon 200 yards long, and then spent $250,000 destroying it.
Charles Locher officially changed his name professionally to Jon Hall with this picture in order to capitalize on his real life relationship to "The Hurricane"'s co-author, James Norman Hall.
Doubles were not used for Mary Astor and Dorothy Lamour when they were lashed to a tree during the hurricane. In her autobiography, Astor said that the sand and water whipping their faces sometimes left pinpricks of blood on their cheeks.
The native village set was on 2½ acres of United Artists' back lot.