When producer Irving Thalberg saw the initial print of the film, he berated director Viktor Tourjansky for making what he called a western satire instead of the straight western it was supposed to be. Tourjansky replied that the original script was "idiotic" and told Thalberg that he had originally told Tourjansky it should be a comedy anyway, so he (Tourjansky) turned it into a spoof of Hollywod westerns. The two got into a heated argument, Tourjansky got angry and walked off the picture. Thalberg brought in director W.S. Van Dyke to replace him. Van Dyke wound up reshooting almost all of the film.