The film was adapted for the screen by Bell, and was based on the play The King, Leo Ditrichstein's adaptation of the 1908 French play Le Roi by Gaston Arman de Caillavet, Robert de Flers, and Emmanuel Arène.

The King on Main Street includes two sequences filmed in early two-strip Technicolor.

[5] King Serge IV of Molvania (Menjou) comes to Manhattan to conduct business with Arthur Trent (Kilgour), but instead goes to Coney Island, where he meets Gladys Humphreys (Love) and John Rockland (Shaw).

John, not knowing the king's royal identity, invites him to his home at Little Falls, New Jersey.

[2] Bessie Love's performance of the Charleston in this film popularized the dance within the United States.