The studio's anxiety about this film's all-Black cast is evident in the film's 3:48 minute trailer. It consists of white actor Dick Powell talking directly to the camera, white workers preparing costumes and props, and author Marc Connelly explaining the rationale for the bare sets to a studio executive. According to Connelly, it is how a "simple, devout" people would imagine heaven. At no time are Rex Ingram or any of the film's other stars shown in the preview, and there is only a brief sequence of black extras in a long shot.
The part of "De Lawd" was originally written to be played in blackface by Al Jolson. When that fell through, it was offered to Paul Robeson, who refused it. It eventually was given to Rex Ingram. In this movie, Ingram portrays God; he would also portray the Devil (called "Lucifer, Jr.") in the musical Cabin in the Sky (1943).
The original Broadway stage production won the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened February 26, 1930 at the Mansfield Theatre in New York and ran for 640 performances. Juanita Hall, who later played "Bloody Mary" in the stage and film versions of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's classic South Pacific (1958), appeared in the original stage production.
Banned in many countries.
Ranked 9th best movie in 1936 by Film Daily's annual poll of critics.