Gloria Swanson had starred in twelve Paramount productions. Among them were memorable hits including Beyond the Rocks, with Valentino, and Zaza, the last directed by Allan Dwan, a director under whom Gloria would work more happily than with any other excepte DeMille himself. The fortuitous combination was at its best in Manhandled (1924). In 1925 there appeared another Allan Dwan – Gloria Swanson vehicle: Stage Struck. Again Gloria appears  as a downtrodden member of the working class.

James Card, Seductive Cinema. The Art of Silent Film, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1994

It was the first time I can recall anyone using Technicolor. I said to the Technicolor man, “Let’s project some colour on the walls.” “Oh, you can’t do that.” “Why? You do in the theatre. Put magenta in front on the lamps and change everything from pink to blue. In fact, you can change it as you’re shooting –“ “Oh, it wouldn’t work.” “Well, can’t we try it?” Finally, we did and, gee, the effect was immense – just perfect. Those colours came out just as well as the clothes, and it added to the scene effect. (I remembre Nita Naldi was in that sequence dressed up like the Queen of Sheba or something.) But, you know, Technicolor would give demonstrations of their stuff and nobody had much use for it. We would never dream of using it for a whole picture – but for a short sequence of that kind, I thought it might be effective.

Allan Dwan, in Peter Bogdanovich, Allan Dwan the last pioneer, London, Studio Vista, 1971