 From its initial inception up until right before the cameras started  to roll, the film was designed to be shot in Technicolor. All of the  sets and costumes were designed with color in mind. MGM went so far  as to send the fox cape that Norma Shearer (qv) wears (to see  Henry Stephenson on the night she becomes Queen) to New York to be  specially dyed to match the blue of her eyes. Fearing that the  addition of Technicolor would swell the already mammoth 1.8 million  dollar budget, the production went before black and white cameras  instead.