Awesome, Dear Boy: James Cagney jumped at the chance to play a hammy actor, having got his start as a song and dance man, and looking for any chance to show his talents off.
Banned in China: The movie was banned in Germany by the Nazi government because Max Reinhardt and Felix Mendelssohn were Jews and considered undesirable.
Olivia de Havilland made her big screen debut here. She shot two more films that got released first, but the success of all three resulted in a high profile for her.
Subverted with Ross Alexander, who played Demetrius. He was being groomed by the Hollywood Hype Machine and had just starred in the hit Captain Blood. But his wife abruptly committed suicide, and he followed suit just two years later.
Billing Displacement: Calista Flockhart is billed second, as she was recognisable for Ally McBeal, even though Hermia and Lysander have more prominence than Helena.
California Doubling: Played with. The action of the play is relocated to Tuscany as opposed to Athens, but references to Athens are still kept in the script. The film's opening titles set the action in a fictional Tuscan region called "Monte Athena."
Creator Backlash: Kevin Kline felt he was a better fit for Oberon, and disliked playing the cartoonish Bottom.
A few years later, Dominic West would be far more likely to play Demetrius. But here he's Lysander.
Christian Bale was likewise more accustomed to playing the plucky hero at the time (before American Psycho broke him of such typecasting). But here he plays Demetrius.
Troubled Production: Mildly, but the forest scenes were done inside an aircraft hangar for five weeks, and the plants used started to decay under the hot studio lights - releasing lots of harmful gases. The Helena and Hermia mud fight could only have two takes, because it took four hours to properly clean and prep the actresses for a second. As filming mostly took place at night, the cast became increasingly unhinged.
