Some reviews listed the title as What a Widow!
       A three-day dress rehearsal, in which the cast enacted the entire script, was shot at a cost of $10,000, according to a January 1930 Close Up item. An item in the 11 March 1930 Exhibitors Daily Review and Motion Pictures Today claimed that this marked the first time that a studio had used a “working screen model…for purposes of analysis and revision” prior to a shoot.
       The 7 February 1930 Los Angeles Times stated that Gloria Swanson was slated to sing three songs in the film. At the time, Sidney Franklin was attached to direct. Ian Keith was initially cast in the role of “Victor,” but after the filmed rehearsal he was replaced by Lew Cody, as noted in the 20 March 1930 Los Angeles Times. Other supporting cast members named in the 22 February 1930 [Dayton, OH] Dayton Daily News included Buster West, Elizabeth Patterson, Billie Bennett, and Arthur Hoyt. An item in the 26 April 1930 Hollywood Filmograph noted that Meyer Toben worked on the film but did not specify in what capacity.
       Principal photography began on 24 February 1930, as announced in that day’s Exhibitors Daily Review and Motion Pictures Today. Filming took place on the Pathé lot in Culver City, CA, where eleven of the thirteen sound stages were used, according to the 12 April 1930 Motion Picture News. Sets built by art director Paul Nelson, an American architect based in Paris, France, cost an estimated $300,000. Some additional sequences were directed by Dudley Murphy, according to a 21 May 1930 Variety item.
       A news brief in the 9 May 1930 Exhibitors Daily Review and Motion Pictures Today stated that theatrical release was scheduled for 5 July 1930. However, the 17 June 1930 Film Daily claimed that Gloria Swanson, whose Gloria Productions, Inc., produced the film, wanted to withhold the picture until fall 1930, due to the financial depression. While a 25 October 1930 release was later announced in the 3 September 1930 Exhibitors Daily Review and Motion Pictures Today, the film was ultimately issued by United Artists Corp. on 13 September 1930. The following day’s Los Angeles Times reported that Swanson was “much disturbed” by the release, which she believed to be “premature.”