This was a groundbreaking film at the time. It was a sound film shot all on location high in the mountains. Real mountain people were used as supporting players.
Adolf Hitler counted this film among his favorites. It prompted him to ask director Leni Riefenstahl to shoot Trionfo della volontà (1935), the famous documentary of the Sixth Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg.
In 1960, Leni Riefenstahl collaborated with L. Ron Hubbard on a script for a remake of this film, but it was never produced.