To keep production costs down, low-budget studio Majestic Pictures filmed at night on Universal's European village set, which was used for Frankenstein (1931). The interior of Lionel Atwill's house is the set from The Old Dark House (1932).
Majestic Pictures cashed in on the success of Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, who had been a sensation in the Technicolor thriller Doctor X (1932) and had already completed Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), which was also being heavily promoted at the time. Majestic was able to get this film into theaters over a month before the release of the latter one.
Although the movie is black and white, selective hand coloring was used to enhance the torch flames seen in the chase scene. In copies restored by UCLA's Film & Television Archive this has been simulated by digital enhancement.
This was the first of a staggering 11 films released in 1933 that featured rising star Fay Wray. Among them were Warners' technicolor horror movie, Mystery of the Wax Museum (in which she again co-starred with Lionel Atwill) and the classic which granted her screen immortality, the original King Kong (which reigned for a decade as the biggest money-maker in the history of RKO).
Preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
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