The production was dogged by "ill circumstances". Oberon was injured in a car accident 16 March 1937, suffering facial cuts and a slight concussion. On 26 March 1937, it was announced that the film was abandoned. Suspicions that the accident was used as a pretext for cancelling the troubled production surfaced within days, when columnist Sheilah Graham reported that quarrels between Korda and Laughton over Laughton's interpretation of Claudius was "the real reason work on the picture has been halted, not the serious injuries supposedly suffered by the leading lady, Merle Oberon, in a London auto crash." London Films received an £80,000 (£ today) settlement from Prudential Insurance that reduced the production's losses to date.