During production Greta Garbo's friend and mentor, Mauritz Stiller, died in Sweden. Devastated by his death, Garbo traveled to Sweden incognito to mourn his death. Her secretive travel plans were quickly foiled when she was recognized on the voyage.
The film is based on a story by John Colton called "Heat". That was the original name of the film, but the name was changed. Studio heads realized that it would not be the best campaign to have posters and advertisements inviting movie-goers to come see: Greta Garbo in 'Heat'.
One of four silent films Greta Garbo made in the year 1929. Sound had overtaken the film industry, but Garbo and Charles Chaplin were the two primary holdouts in the transition; Chaplin because he was resisting the shift, and Garbo because she was redoubling her efforts to master English, something the native Swede was never pressed to do in the silent era. Garbo made the most silent films -seven in all -of any Hollywood star following the advent of sound in 1927. As a testament to MGM's most bankable star, audiences still turned out for her films despite the fact that silents had been rendered obsolete virtually overnight. She would not make her talkie debut until the carefully-chosen Anna Christie (1930), a prestige film that adroitly cast her as a Swede, thus allowing the studio to hedge its bets on her successful transition to talkies.