"China Seas" was an early Hollywood formula adventure-movie loosely using the plot of Gable and Harlow's earlier film titled "Red Dust" (1932) featuring Mary Astor in Russell's role, which was subsequently remade with Gable, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly two decades later as "Mogambo" (1953).Wallace Beery had worked with both Gable and Harlow in "The Secret Six" (1931), in which Gable and Harlow had smaller supporting roles and Beery played the lead.