Director William Dieterle began his film career in Germany as an actor and appeared (under his original name, Wilhlem Dieterle) in the role of Valentin in F.W. Murnau's epic 1926 silent version of the Faust story. The opening scene of Dieterle's film, in which Mr Scratch looms into view and surveys the Stone farm from the gate, echoes the famous scene in the opening sequence of Murnau's film, in which the Devil looms over Faust's town like a giant bat.
