For years film critics considered the Santschi/Farnum fight to be the benchmark against which all future screen fights were measured, including four remakes of the original.
Farnum and Santschi had originally choreographed the fight with the director as Farnum was scheduled for two pictures at Paramount immediately thereafter. According to the actor he told Santschi, "Go easy, Tom. I've got to be pretty next week." Farnum misjudged Santschi's first swing and it caught him flush in his nose, breaking it. According to Farnum's own words, "I'm ashamed to say that I thought he'd hit me hard on purpose, so I waited for an opening. Then I let him have it. After that we were both punch drunk. The people on the sidelines - those were silent pictures remember - yelled 'Stop them! They're killing one another.' He caught me over the left eye, and I spurted blood like a stuck pig. I leaped at him, and he bent double, but he straightened up. He was a big man, and I landed twelve feet away. Dear old Tom! We got to be great friends afterward. We smashed a bookcase - I found myself inside with Tom on top of me, and then it went over - it should have killed us. I've never been quite the same man since that fight. Besides the broken nose. I had two bent ribs and a crushed sinus in my cheek that gave me dizzy spells for years. At the end I got a good shoulder lock on Tom, and I bent him back and back and back until I heard him groan, 'For God's sake, Bill!' Then I had enough sense to let go. When it was over, messy and bloody as we were, Tom and I went to a Turkish bath and stayed for three days."
An incomplete print of this film exists in the Raymond Rohauer Collection (Cohen Media Group).
When the Midas Mine is blown up, the camera pans over the destruction. This is the only bit of camera movement in the entire film, which otherwise consists of long stationary shots.
Lines of dialogue in the intertitles are introduced by the character's name, in the manner of a script. One reason for this is that the film is comprised mostly of medium shots, some of which are so poorly blocked it is difficult to tell which actor is supposed to be speaking.