 The movie was made because although the new owners of Universal  Studios in 1936 were convinced that the horror genre was  commercially dead, they inherited a contract stipulating  Boris Karloff (qv)’s participation in one more film.  Carl Laemmle Jr. (qv) had signed him to this contract after the  success of _Frankenstein (1931)_ (qv), so, not knowing what other  genre to put him in, they commissioned a story that would give him a  suitable role but stipulated it would not be a horror film.