Working titles for this film included Tabloid and The High Road, after the 1927 stage play by Frederick Lonsdale, upon which this film is based.
       Norma Shearer was initially cast in the lead role, as reported in the 5 December 1929 [Brooklyn, NY] Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The 21 February 1930 [East Liverpool, OH] Evening Review later noted that Shearer was spending that week in costume fittings and shooting camera tests, prior to the start of production, scheduled for 28 February 1930. However, Shearer did not remain with the picture. Filming with married actors Ralph Forbes and Ruth Chatterton in the lead roles was underway by early April 1930, according to the 6 April 1930 [Camden, NJ] Courier-Post. Chatterton appeared in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. production courtesy of Paramount Pictures, with whom she was currently under contract.
       The 17 May 1930 Los Angeles Times stated that the following cast members had previously appeared in a staging of Lonsdale’s play: Basil Rathbone, Herbert Buston, Effie Ellsler, Moon Carroll, Cyril Chadwick, and Frederick Kerr. According to the 3 June 1930 Exhibitors Daily Review and Motion Pictures Today, Kerr and Mackenzie Ward were in the original London stage production.
       Theatrical release occurred on 24 May 1930. A review in the 17 May 1930 Los Angeles Times deemed it “probably the first cinema romance in history which is enacted without the exchange of a single kiss.” The 18 May 1930 Los Angeles Times pointed out that the advent of talking pictures had made certain stage play adaptations more viable, and that now “sophistication is replacing naivete in the movies.” Ruth Chatterton was quoted in the 3 June 1930 Exhibitors Daily Review and Motion Pictures Today as saying, “There seems to be no reason why clever lines cannot hold an audience as well in motion pictures as on the stage; in fact, as the microphone brings the audience closer, there is no reason why the effect should not be even better.”