When the film opened at the Embassy Theatre in New York City 28 November 1928, it was still silent and was accompanied by a live orchestral accompaniment. In December 1928 a musical score was recorded, sound-on-disc, and this version was distributed by MGM in 1929.
The film was created to show off color and to get everyone to want more of it. It was financed and produced by the Technicolor Corporation to demonstrate the capabilities of their two-color process. Technicolor president Herbert T. Kalmus functioned as the producer, and his wife Natalie was the color art director. It was distributed by M-G-M, after production chief Irving Thalberg became impressed with the technology.
This was at least the fourth all-color silent film. Earlier ones included The Toll of the Sea (1922), Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924), and The Black Pirate (1926).
The final shot, showing Ericsson's stone tower still standing in contenporary (i.e., 1928) Newport, RI, is black-and-white stock footage.
Based on a 1902 novel called The Thrall of Leif the Lucky, the story follows the adventures of Leif Ericsson and his crew of Vikings as they sail from Norway to what would later become Rhode Island. By all accounts, the film delves far more into fiction than into fact.
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