The New Zealand National Film Preservation Foundation announced it had found the first three reels of this six-reel film on August 3, 2011. The press release states that Alfred Hitchcock "wrote the film's scenario, designed the sets, edited the footage, and served as assistant director . . . ". The NFPF will screen the film when restoration is completed.
Three of the six reels from this film (featuring around 40 minutes of footage) were discovered in the New Zealand Film Archive in 2011. Erroneously labeled "Twin Sisters" and "Unidentified American Film", they had been donated to the Archive in 1989 following the death of local film projectionist and collector Jack Murtagh. The nitrate prints hailed from the US release by Lewis J. Selznick Enterprises circa 1924.
In a 1951 interview with Sight & Sound magazine, producer Michael Balcon mentioned this film, which was his second production, and called it "shockingly bad." But he went on to say that he learned a great deal from his mistakes.
Story based on the unpublished novel "Children of Chance" by Michael Morton.
This is not an adaptation of the Broadway play "The Shadow" written by Michael Morton.