The film's editor was Dorothy Arzner, who would later go on to become Hollywood's first female director. Arzner impressed the producers by cannily interspersing stock bull-fighting footage with shots of Rudolph Valentino to make it look like the actor was actually in the ring with real bulls. This was quite a progressive technique in its day.
Recently introduced laws protecting the safety of animals meant that it was impossible to shoot footage of a real bullfight. Stock footage is used instead.
According to author James Kirkwood Jr., whose mother Lila Lee played Carmen in this film, Rudolph Valentino liked to eat traditional Italian foods, heavily spiced with garlic. Lee had to ask that her love scenes with Valentino be shot in the morning so she wouldn't have to deal with his garlic breath after lunch.
Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova hoped to have the film shot in Spain, but the studio ultimately elected to shoot it on the back lot in Hollywood.
Along with his two 1921 films, The Sheik (1921) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), this cemented Rudolph Valentino as a major box office attraction.
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