Actress Bess Armstrong once said of her co-star Tom Selleck whilst doing publicity for the picture: "He is real gorgeous, and he has some real power now, but he doesn't use that, or his charm, to exploit women. He genuinely seems to like women. For an actor, that's rare".

The make and models of the three bi-planes in the film were all vintage Belgian-designed French-built Stampe SV4C aircraft that were built after World War II though in the film the planes portray World War I era bi-planes.

Bess Armstrong once said of the very low temperatures during the movie's production shoot: "...I found Yugoslavia so cold they had to pin layers of thermal under my flapper dress in such a way it wouldn't show...it made it impossible for me to go to the bathroom without six helpers and two people on walkie-talkies relating my progress to the director, the cameraman and anybody who happened to be standing around!".

First major starring role in a cinema movie for actor Tom Selleck.

Actors Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong had to overcome a significant height difference between them whilst blocking their scenes together. Armstrong is quoted in the January 1984 edition of Photoplay (UK) magazine as saying: "I spent five months in four-inch heels and standing on soap boxes just to reach him".

Continuity

When Eve Tozer tells Charlie Shane that she couldn't live without money after he told her that her father should be declared dead, she smokes a cigarette. In the next cut the cigarette is gone.

The wreck of first the deHavilland burned and the engine fell from its mounts. Both deHavillands were shown flying in the film and were powered with the V-8 Curtiss OX-5 power plant. The engine seen in the burned airplane was an inverted inline 6 cylinder, most likely a Liberty 12A six cylinder.



Factual errors

When they arrived in Nepal, locals were clearly taking Myanmar (Burmese). Even Alessa was asking her mom if Bradley is here and her mom answer no and there were talking Myanmar (Burmese). Nepal natives have their own Nepalese language and no connections at all with Myanmar.

The destroyed airplane dropped its engine but the front of the engine compartment where the engine connected to the propeller was intact and showed no signs of compromise.



Anachronisms

Aircraft from this era did not have wireless radios.

O'Malley's aviator glasses are of a shape first introduced in 1941, some 15-20 years after the events in the movie.

In the climactic battle scene, a number of the Chinese peasants can be seen using Mauser 98k rifles, a variant of the 1898 Mauser which wasn't introduced until 1935, at least a decade after this film is set.

Aircraft from this era did not have electrical starters.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

In the scene where they escape from the Arab camp, a young Arab man claims he will kill himself if she leaves. Eve screams... well, originally it was just "Men!" and he lips clearly say more. But the sound is blanked out. Otherwise, I guess it would have been a 15!



Errors in geography

Their "high road to China" takes them from Europe through the Middle East, Afghanistan, Nepal, arriving in China via the Tibetan highlands from the West. Using this route, it is impossible to fly over the Great Wall of China as indicated in the movie. The Great Wall is on the northern part of China.