Parts of this film were shot on location in Santiago, Cuba. Some sources, including the 11 Oct 1913 Motion Picture News, credited Augustus Thomas with the direction and William F. Haddock as the assistant to Mr. Thomas. Others said that Haddock was the director. George Cooke, Jr. was the location business manager. Soldiers of Fortune was Dustin Farnum’s first film.
       An advertisement in the 3 Jan 1914 Moving Picture World described the film as follows: “Produced on a Sumptuous and Lavish Scale in Cuba, under the Personal Direction of August Thomas, with the co-operation of the U.S. Navy and Cuban Army.”
       Richard Harding Davis—who based his 1897 novel on his own experiences as a young man working for an iron mine in Santiago, Cuba, and traveled back to that city with the All Star Feature Corp. production—discussed the filming of Soldiers of Fortune in the 15 Nov 1913 Motion Picture News. “We left New York on October 11 [1913], and went at once to Santiago and put the play on.” But unlike Augustus Thomas’s stage play adapted from Davis’s novel, with its “painted and flimsy” scenery, the film “had the real thing every time, and the big fight scene took place in the plaza of the town, just as I had pictured it, and we had the soldiers defending the gate and the heroine escaping on the locomotive, and everything else that the book called for. In all, we took 233 separate scenes, all outlined by Mr. Thomas and directed by him. The Cuban Government was splendid to us, and lent us the army to do anything we wished with. We had 2,000 Cuban regulars fighting before the camera and 25 bluejackets from the American boat Osceloa, and in addition the people of the city took a great interest in the work….The only trouble we had was in getting permission to land the rapid-fire gun. It was a case of landing a firearm on foreign soil, and we had to get permission from the President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Governor of the Province of Santiago, the Alcalde of the city, and the American Consul, but finally we got it through. They would not consent to allow the Cuban flag to be used, however, nor the real flag of any other country, so we had to set up a special flag. We designed one in green and white with green and pink stars, and they were willing to stand for that.”
       The 10 Jan 1914 Motion Picture News gave an added description of “the great palm trees and typical tropical locations in plenty, the entire Cuban army, street scenes in Cuban towns, mining scenes and a donkey railroad used by permission of the Daquin Mining Company, historic spots and buildings, United States marines, and the United States Navy was represented by the Osceola and the revenue cutter Itasca.”
       The 10 Jan 1914 Motography noted that the first public screening of Soldiers of Fortune occurred at the American Theatre in New York City on 24 Dec 1913. It had originally been scheduled for a 1 Dec 1913 release on the states' rights market, according to the 25 Oct 1913 Motion Picture News, but ultimately its official release date was pushed back into Jan 1914.
       The All Star Feature Corporation was formed in Aug 1913 to produce “motion pictures of the higher type—the presentation of Broadway theatrical successes in which are featured prominent theatrical stars,” according to Robert Grau’s 1914 book, The Theatre of Science. An item in the 22 Aug 1914 Motion Picture News noted that All Star Feature Film operated out of a studio in Yonkers, NY, until it moved to Fort Lee, NJ, in mid-Aug 1914. Soldiers of Fortune was the company’s third feature, following Arizona and Checkers (both 1913, see entries).
       Allan Dwan remade this film, under the same title, for the Mayflower Photoplay Co. (1919, see entry).