Made for $50,000, this film grossed an astounding $1.5 million and was the first bona fide hit for Warner Bros.. The success of this film encouraged them to concentrate on film production rather than distribution.
[Foreword] It is the purpose of this production to accurately portray those events which took place under the personal observation and within the knowledge of Ambassador Gerard, as set down in his book, "My Four Years in Germany". Everything herein picturized, including the spoken words, is Fact not Fiction. We are engaged in a war against the greatest military power the world has seen; against a people whose country was for centuries a theatre of devastating wars that fear is bred in the very marrow of their souls, making them ready to submit their lives and fortune to an autocracy which for centuries has ground their faces, but which has promised them, as a result of the war not only their security, but riches untold and the dominion of the world; a people which, as from a high mountain has looked upon the cities of the world and the glories of them, and has been promised those cities and these glories by the devils of autocracy and of war.