The movie addresses the adulterous relationship that destroyed Parnell's political career, but its treatment of the subject is highly sanitized (and fictionalized) in keeping with Hollywood content restrictions at the time.

The life of Irish politician and Home Rule activist Charles Stewart Parnell.

As filming began, Gable felt very uneasy with his role, either unable or unwilling to portray the sensitive nature required to capture the character.

The next day, when Stahl called for the music to be turned on, a jazzy version of "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You", went floating throughout the studio.

[1] Writing for Night and Day in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a mildly poor review, decrying the anodyne and sterilized story and condemning "the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer dream of how history should have happened".

Its failure made Gable afraid of doing Gone with the Wind, but he was persuaded otherwise, and ultimately went on to his greatest success with his role as Rhett Butler.