At the time this film was made, Montez was (along with Abbott and Costello and Deanna Durbin) one of Universal's most popular box office attractions. As a result, no expense was spared in its making, and it features many of the elements that came to personify "The Maria Montez formula": an exotic, fictional setting, vividly colorful (and occasionally outrageous) costumes, elaborate special effects (including matte paintings and process shots) and expensive sets. It was also, like most of Montez's movies, filmed in the then expensive process of Technicolor. More than 75 years after its release, this is Montez's best-remembered film, yet it is now in the public domain.
Although mostly forgotten today by the public, it is venerated as a camp classic for its legendary phallic snake-dance and Montez's immortal words: "Geev me that Cobra jewl".
A perfect example of WWII era escapist entertainment, this vividly colorful, dramatically over-the-top and romantically lush film helped audiences of the time forget their real world problems and find a few hours' revelry in a world of pure fantasy.