Leading man Gavin Gordon was hit by another vehicle while driving his car to the set the first day of shooting. He was flung onto the pavement and fractured a collarbone, as well as dislocating his shoulder. Gordon was determined to play alongside Greta Garbo and feared his part might be recast if he went to the hospital, therefore proceeding to the set in spite of great pain. He managed to get through the first scene, whereupon he fainted. Garbo visited his bedside at the hospital and told him, production would wait for him. Director Clarence Brown therefore had to shoot all the scenes first in which Gordon didn't appear.
Greta Garbo originally wanted Gary Cooper as her leading man in this film. In the end, however, MGM could not borrow Cooper from Paramount, so Garbo settled for the unknown Gavin Gordon. Cooper would come to MGM two years later for the Joan Crawford vehicle Today We Live (1933).
Adapted from a Broadway play by Edward Sheldon. The original stage production of "Romance" starred Doris Keane as Rita Cavallini; it opened at Maxine Elliott's Theatre in New York on Feb. 10, 1913 and ran for 160 performances. There was a revival at the Playhouse Theatre that began on 28 February 1929 and ran for 106 performances.
Lewis Stone (Van Tuyl) appeared in seven Greta Garbo films altogether, including two of her silent ones.