Dry ice incident

There is an interesting fact about the filming of the South Pole scenes. It was actually filmed in Southern California in extreme heat. In order to invoke realism Capra and the film crew devised metal boxes containing dry ice to be put in the actors mouths to make their breath visible like in a cold climate. The boxes were awkward and affected their speech. If appeared veteran actor Hobart Bosworth grew frustrated and took the dry ice out of the box and stuck it directly in his mouth. Either that happened or the dry ice accidently got out of the box. At any rate the dry ice got in his mouth and he had to be rushed to a hospital and he lost five teeth and part of his jaw bone.

He did survive and remained active in films for ten more years, but what an ordeal.